For the 14th time, the Slow Food convivium of Slow Food Västnyland in Western Uusimaa, southern Finland, welcomed thousands of visitors to the annual Slow Food Festival. The event took place on the first weekend of October 2024. Since the first Slow Food Festival was arranged in the area, the aim has been to offer a platform for consumers and producers from the region to meet and discuss.
The Slow Food Festival has changed names over the years and switched venues yearly for the first years, touring different municipalities in the region. But as of now, the festival has found its home in Fiskars Village, approximately an hour by car from Helsinki. The small village in Western Uusimaa is popular among tourists for its buzzing art scene. For the fourth year, the venue was the old Threshing House, an event space in the village.
A Platform for Meetings & Discussions
The event’s core is to provide local producers and citizen-consumers a place to meet and discuss local food production. When the convivium first arranged the event fourteen years ago, there were few places to buy from local producers. Since then, the availability of local food has grown significantly in the region and across Finland. Today, consumers have many local food festivals, harvest markets, and Reko rings to choose from when sourcing local food products.
“The festival is a place to talk about food and exchange experiences and knowledge. To make good food choices is important for the climate and the world, and it is essential to discuss and to learn from each other”, says Diana Nyberg Lindholm, chairperson of the Slow Food Västnyland convivium.
The festival program has evolved and taken different shapes and forms, from cooking demonstrations and workshops for kids to food talks and Nordic meetings. What is always at the center of the event is gathering producers from Uusimaa and Varsinais-Suomi regions to showcase and sell their products.
Chaga Mushroom Powder & Kimchi
The around 45 exhibitors, food producers, farmers, and food artisans at this year’s event offered honey, kimchi, a large variety of pumpkins, vegetables, meat and sausages, garlic, sourdough bread, chaga mushroom powder, fish, meringues, locally roasted coffee, and many other products for the consumers to taste and take with them home. The spread showcased the vast array of local products produced and/or crafted in the area.
This year, festival visitors could also listen to food talks on themes such as biodiversity, heritage grains, regenerative aquaculture, historical recipes, Instagram for producers, and wine production in Finland.
Grants & Volunteers Make the Festival Run Smoothly
The festival is funded by participation fees paid by exhibitors and a small parking and entrance fee of 2 euros per visitor. Slow Food Västnyland also applies for funding from various local, regional, and national sources.
As for the arrangements of the festival, the board plans the event together with one or several hired project managers. During the days leading up to the festival and the two festival days, board members, project managers, and volunteers get together and ensure the festival runs smoothly. This year, around 25 volunteers from many countries formed an international team, bringing fresh perspectives and energy to the event that gathered 4,500 visitors.
Read more about Slow Food Västnyland and the festival on slowfoodvastnyland.org; the information is provided in Swedish, Finnish, and English. You can also find the convivium on Facebook and Instagram.
Photo: Astrid Lindroos
