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From black metal to rainbow flags, a festival-packed weekend

This final weekend of June is a high-water mark of the summer festival season with tens of thousands of people gathering to share music, sports, gay pride and spirituality.

Suviseurojen kenttä Söderfjärdenillä Öjbergetin näkötornista kuvattuna.
Image: Juha Kemppainen / Yle

The capital is hosting not only the 18th annual Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Suvilahti, but also this year's Helsinki Pride which culminates with a Pride Parade which sets off from the Senate Square at 1 PM.

For the teen set, Helsinki's Olympic Stadium is the site of a concert Saturday by British boy band One Direction.

For lovers of other music genres, Järvenpää has the Puistoblues (aka Lake Side Blues Festival), Seinäjoki again hosts the Provinssirock festival and just up the road from Helsinki, Riihimäki Rock kicks off.

The biggest and most challenging mountain bike event in Finland, Tahko MTB is on at the Tahko holiday resort, 65 kilometres northeast of Kuopio. One of the most popular regular Finnish Baseball events of the year, the Itä-Länsi-game (East-West) is scheduled for this weekend in Hyvinkää.

And, a fundamentalist Christian gathering, billed as the Nordic region's largest spiritual event, is underway in Vaasa. The Summer Services (or Suviseurat) are arranged each summer in a different location by the Conservative Laestadians, a Lutheran revivalist sect. The event is usually attended by some 75-thousand people.