Helswingi 2019 Booklet is now out!

Map

The City & the Scene

The Finnish capital is known for its beautiful architecture, historical landmarks, green parks and its location by the seaside. It is also home to countless hipster cafes, second hand shops, jazz bars and many happy lindy hoppers.

Arrival

Helsinki is easy to travel to by air from most places. From Helsinki-Vantaa airport the fastest way to reach to the city center is to take the I- or P-train. You can also find several bus lines arriving to the airport which take detours through different parts of town.

From St Petersburg or Moscow you can also arrive by train and from Tallinn and Stockholm by ferry:

Boats from Stockholm:
www.tallinksilja.com
https://www.sales.vikingline.com/

Boats from Tallinn:
www.tallinksilja.com
https://www.sales.vikingline.com/
www.eckeroline.com

Trains from St. Petersburg and Moscow:
www.russiantrain.com

Getting around

Once arrived in Helsinki, public transport is the easiest and cheapest way to get around, also by night. The Helsinki public transport app comes in handy when you are on the go.

HSL also has a great city bike service. In case of good weather those city bikes can be a very budget-friendly option to move around town.

Visas

If you need a travel visa to enter Finland in order to attend our event, send us a mail to info@helswingi.fi. We will help you to get the necessary invitations so you can come swing out with us.

Locations

We are still making the final decisions on our class and party locations, but all of them will be in the city center area within a 15-30min walk from the main train station.

Where to sleep

Our community is very open to host dancers from abroad. You can ask for hosting in the Helswingi hosting group on Facebook. In the scenario of all couches are taken, Airbnb is probably the cheapest option to look at, before hostels and hotels.

What to see

In Helsinki you can find many must-sees but also hidden places, that are only known (but happily shared) by the locals. If you are looking for more than just casual dance reasons to visit us, take a read on this article: “36 reasons to love Helsinki”

Vintage Helsinki

Are you looking for vintage inspired clothing? Or some vinyls to relove? You are in the right place. In Finland second-hand often comes first. There are plenty of flea markets, and stores like which specialize in vintage clothing. Here you can read more about ways to find vintage in Helsinki.

https://www.visitfinland.com/article/vintage-helsinki/

The Jazz & Dance scene

The swing dance scene in Helsinki has been around for approximately two decades. The town has several Swing dance schools, as well as regular Lindy hop, Balboa and Blues socials. We are also blessed with an active jazz music scene. Jazz bars like Tenho, Storyville or Manala frequently feature live bands, and if you are lucky, their music is danceable and you can find a slidy spot to shuffle on. You can easily keep track of Jazz related events in Helsinki by checking the Jazz calendar and the Swing & Blues calendar.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Helswingi was born in 2017 out of the idea to organize a Shag workshop. The end result was a 600 feet festival with 10 teachers and 35+ local musicians. This is the multi-cultural quartet blowing the whistles behind the scene:

Andžej

is a hyper-experienced organizer, and also commonly seen as volunteer or DJ at events. As former permanent resident of Helsinki he has a special bond to the town. Andžej is the party maker of Helswingi. His mission: make you dance through all six spare T-shirts and that extra underwear.

Tanja

takes care of class planning, logistics and teachers. If any of those seem messed up, you know whom to talk to (her). She is also doing most of the creative writing for the event, read social media and website. When something seems unsolvable, chocolate and rabbit videos will do the magic for her.

Karri

is the technical brain of the event. His headaches are all about the registration system crashing, web pages being inaccessible and budget calculations blowing up. And coffee being anything else than fresh ground and soft brewed. He also might answer your emails, so make sure to insert smilies once in a while.  

Caroline

turns visual x 3000 what Tanja can’t say and Karri can’t program. Anything that includes some sort of design at the festival has had her hand or at least her instructions involved. When Caro steps on the scene, there is optimism, colourful ideas and happy people around.

Contact

info@helswingi.fi
facebook.com/helswingi
instagram.com/helswingi

+358 84 154 1724

Legal information

Legal name: Osuuskunta Swing Kollektiivi / Coop Swing Collective
VAT number: FI28578381
Address: Meritullinkatu 7 A 11, 00170 Helsinki, Finland
www.blackpepperswing.com