Annikki Poetry Festival

In 2003, the residents of Annikki Wooden Quarter in Tampere founded a poetry event in their courtyard. The history of the venue spans over a century. Since then, Annikki Poetry Festival has developed into one of Finland’s most international and significant poetry events and original cultural festivals. It has also spawned Annikki OFF, a three-day series of events around the city. Annikki Poetry Festival is organised by volunteers every two years.

In addition to Finnish performers, the festival also regularly features prominent international performers. Poets to have partaken in the festival include Mutabaruka (JAM), John Cooper Clarke (UK), Anne Waldman (USA), Yumi Fuzuki (JP), John Giorno (USA), Joelle Taylor (UK) and Jaan Kaplinski (EE) et al.

Annikki Poetry Festival 2024

The Annikki Poetry Festival will take place on 8.6.2024 at 11.00-22.00 in the courtyard of Annikki wooden house quarter in Tampere. The festival will once again feature prominent international performers, a fine and surprising selection of Finnish poets as well as music, prose writers, children’s programme and visual arts.

The theme of the festival is Personal. The theme will focus on the importance of poetry and, more broadly, the life experiences of cultural practitioners as raw material for artistic work. The keywords are autobiography, personality and autofiction. The poetry festival will explore whether the personal is still political, or whether it is drowning in the overwhelming stream of factual narratives that the social media of our time is churning out. Is autobiography undergoing an inflation, or is the fascination with hearing and telling personal stories still in our blood?