Midsummer Switches Site

Pori Jazz Festival and the local authority in the Finish city are readying a 55-hectare parking and camping site next to the main arena in time for the city to host its first RMJ Midsummer Festival.

The June 19-22 event, which has been staged 50 kilometres south at Raumi for nine years, has changed hands and – partly due to the mixed response it got from the locals – has upped sticks and will celebrate its 10th anniversary at the Kirjurinluoto Arena in Pori.

The new owners are SK-festivals, a company set up by Sedu Koskinen – the owner of Europe’s biggest nightclub chain – and Espoo Blues ice-hockey team owner Jussi Salonoja.

Pori Jazz programmer Jyrki Kangas has joined RMJ and will be working on the booking of its lineup.

He told Pollstar that RMJ and Pori (July 12-20) will both benefit from happening on the same site within a month of each other.

The full programmes for both are expected to be announced March 28, although Pori has already confirmed Santana, Esperanza Spalding and Dalindeo for July 18.

Kangas says 10,000 tickets have already been sold and he says that bodes well for the show topping the 40,000 tickets that Sting sold in the same arena two years ago.

Other confirmed names include Little Feat, Joan Armatrading, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Jimmy Owens, Amina Claudine Myers, and the Siberian Jazz Band.