OAF’s Musical Microcosm explodes all over Helsinki!

The year 2023 OAF’s Musical Microcosm serves sounds from rap to pop-rock and post-immortal to healing noise in three different venues. There will be cult artists as well as some new discoveries.

Music programs’ curators Sami Helle and Sani Valoranta with mentor Karri Miettinen aka Paleface are corresponding to this years’ artistic selections. 

Curating has been a lot of work, as bands sended “a wildly large amount” of applications, says curator Sami Helle to Voima-magazine (3/2023).

Helle finds this years’ large variety in the music selection especially amazing. Outsider Art Festival is now held for the third time, and the amount of applications has doubled each year. Curating is really fun, and I have found many new interesting bands through it, Helle states. 

In addition to being a curator, Helle also works as a festival guide at OAF. “At the festival people belonging to special groups, disabled people and people of Helsinki can meet and have fun together. No one is left out. It is the highlight of the year for me.”

OAF’s themes for the year 2023 are employment and internationality. OAF currently employs a hundred people every year, and is also a part of the Helsinki Festival program, Helle shares. On the other hand, internationality as a part of the music program is present for example in the form of the Semifinal concert night. 

OAF music programme 2023 consists of Keuhkot, Mc Koo, Felix ja Kuuhullun kuolema, Mika Hagman, Loiriplukari and Grandefinale. In addition we also have international artists mirrored fatality (USA) ja Ryosuke Kiyasu (JPN). 

As a cherry on top, OAF-Academy’s Kalle Salonen will perform at Helsinki Festival with his new group Salonen-Gustavson-Gröhn.