As a person who was born in Järvenpää, I have always been taught that music and culture are a huge part of life; even Järvenpää’s slogan, “lively cultural city” (elinvoimainen kulttuurikaupunki), lives with my belief. Even though my parents have never played an instrument and aren’t that musical, my father occasionally listened to blues and many variations of it. This has molded my musical fondness towards everything that sounds and tells a story like blues does. When I first realized that not everyone likes the same music I do, at the age of six, I was astounded. How could anyone not like blues?
I don’t even remember when I’ve been first introduced to Puistoblues; I was a toddler back then. To me Puistoblues was a huge picnic with tons of people listening to good music and socializing with each other. We always brought a blanket, drinks and a small lunch with us. And there was a huge bouncy castle.
Puistoblues (puisto = park) is an annual blues festival in Järvenpää, which has been arranged completely with community effort by Järvenpään Blues-Jazz diggarit ry. Puistoblues gathers annually thousands of blues’ friends in Järvenpää, last year’s main concert’s population coming to 10 000 people. Puistoblues also includes the Blueskatu (katu = street), turning Järvenpää’s main precinct into a market full of blues and carnival items. First Puistoblues was held in 1978, thus the event will be held for the 35th time this year.
The main artists this year will be John Fogerty, Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Los Lonely Boys and Honey B & T-Bones. In previous years such artists as ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Santana, Gary Moore and many more have appeared on the stage. For those interested, the whole list of bands can be found here: http://www.puistoblues.fi/index.php?k=19127
Since I was child, I’ve asked the question (How could anyone not like blues?) several times without concluding to a clear answer. Nowadays, the music industry is full of ridiculous lyrics concerning an intercourse with multiple harlots, with the sounds of old 54 kilobit modems combined to oversaturated bass and random, incoherent vulgar shouts, it’s harder and harder to discover new songs with so much effort and soul put into them as blues has by default.
Puistoblues’ meaning hasn’t changed to me, even though during the last few years I’ve been forced to be absent due to badly planned working hours. I’m glad I could make it this year, but I fear that the bouncy castle isn’t as big as it used to be.
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- Los Lonely Boys
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- This guy was rocking it, hard.
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- Los Lonely Boys
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- Los Lonely Boys
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- Los Lonely Boys
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- Los Lonely Boys
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- No-one pressed it. How sad.
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- A bloody murderous rabbit that kept staring at me. I think this one’s even more scarier than the boy from Helsinki-Day’s post.
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- Children’s workshop. Everyone had the chance to create their own toy guitar out of plywood and paint them as they wished. There were even contrabasses for the bold-minded ones.
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- Eli “Paperboy” Reed
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- Eli “Paperboy” Reed
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- Eli “Paperboy” Reed
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- Eli “Paperboy” Reed
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- Something I love in Puistoblues; the diversity of different people, all coming as who they truly are, all being in peace. And enjoying some great blues.
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- Eli “Paperboy” Reed
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- Eli “Paperboy” Reed
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- Eli “Paperboy” Reed
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- Eli “Paperboy” Reed
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- Eli “Paperboy” Reed
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- Eli “Paperboy” Reed
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- Plywood guitars and basses, made by children in the guitar workshop. Some models even had rubber bands as strings.
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- John Fogetry – Unfortinately the diva artist did not allow anyone to take photos of him, not even on the press area. Security guards proceeded to grab the cameras of those who were in the front row and denied taking photos of the artist. Okay, I can understand if a world-famous artist wishes to give his own photographer room in the press area in front of the stage, but to deny fans taking photos of him? A disgrace, I must say, especially the security’s rough physical contact to audience’s cameras. Photographing in a public area belongs to the free speech in Finland. Only restrictions in photography are mentioned in criminal law chapter 24, 6 § and 11 § (rikoslaki 24 luku 6 § ja 11 §) which, in short, deny photographing in a home residence, office, private occasion or a production area without a permit. Photographing subjects in changing rooms, toilets etc. without their permission is also against the law. According multiple käräjäoikeus’ decisions, a private occasion can only be private, when every member has been personally invited and the entrance to the occasion is strictly limited for others.
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- John Fogetry
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