The story
Ilosaarirock in Joensuu
Ilosaarirock, founded in 1971 by the nonprofit Joensuu Pop Musicians' Association, is Finland's second-oldest rock festival, staged each July on the hillside Laulurinne park with five stages and more than fifty artists. It draws around seventy thousand attendees, with festival profits directed back into supporting North Karelia's local music scene rather than a private operator.
Ilosaarirock traces its origin to July 1971, when members of a newly formed Joensuu Pop Musicians' Association, frustrated by the lack of live music opportunities and collaboration in the local scene, organized their first event that same summer on the town's Ilosaari island, making it the second-oldest rock festival in Finland after Ruisrock and one of the older continuously running rock festivals anywhere in Europe.