The story
Lieksa Brass Week in Lieksa
Lieksa Brass Week, launched in 1980 by trumpeter Erkki Eskelinen after a Lieksa municipality idea contest, is the biggest brass music festival in the Nordic countries. Held around the turn of July and August, it combines music courses, an international brass competition, a classical concert series, and open-air performances, now in its fifth decade of continuous programming.
Music councilor and trumpeter Erkki Eskelinen launched Lieksa Brass Week in 1980, an idea born from an open contest for new event concepts that the Lieksa municipality and the local newspaper Lieksan Lehti had jointly organized the previous year, in 1979, inviting residents to propose ideas for events the town might host.