Soul Valpio, a funky funky group from Jyväskylä, shows how it’s done at the Funky Elephant festival at Club Circus in April 2015. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today.
Funky Elephant, the annual springtime music festival, blows its horn again during the weekend in the heart of Helsinki. The festival is dedicated to celebrating different styles within the black rhythm music as well as urban culture. It has been organised yearly since 1994, and this year’s main event will be celebrated at The Circus event centre in Kamppi.
Some of the highlights of the year’s programme include performances by the UK Ninja Tune legend, The Herbaliser, with their jazzy hip-hop sound, the Finnish dance floor jazz group, Dalindèo, as well as the legendary Brooklyn Funk Essentials from the US, known for their groovy neo-funk and acid jazz. And we can’t surely forget about the Nigerian saxophonist, singer and multi-instrumentalist, Orlando Julius, who gave a performance of the lifetime at the World Village Festival in Helsinki last summer.
Parts of the event include free music and programme at the multicultural family zone at the Narinkka square on Saturday.
The organiser of the festival is Funky Amigos, which is a non-profit organisation. Its main aim is to encourage multiculturalism and tolerance, and also promote the status of modern rhythm music as well as artists in Finland.
Funky Elephant (7.–9.4.2016). The whole programme can be found here.
