Kotka’s event year is just beginning – see a list of upcoming events
Dark River Festival
At the beginning of August, 10-12 August, the Dark River Festival will take place at Honkala Ski Stadium, Kotka. The heavy music festival will offer visitors a wide and international range of music, a great food and drink menu and a variety of other services. The festival will focus on the experience and a positive customer experience, which will be particularly visible in the festival area. Tickets for the festival are on sale at Tiketti.fi.
Opening week of the Satama Areena
Satama Areena, the new events and meeting centre in Kotka’s Kantasatama harbour, will celebrate its opening on 25.8.-1.9.2023.The opening week concert on Friday 25.8. will feature top-class artists BEHM and Anssi Kela. On Saturday 26.8. the opening week’s Tango concert, tailored to adult tastes, will bring the vocal group Club For Five and the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra to the stage. On Friday 1 September, the opening week will be crowned by a Satama Areena x Meteli concert featuring rap n’ b artist F and headliner Gasellit. Opening week concert tickets are on sale at Lippu.fi.
Alvar Aalto week
Alvar Aalto Week will be celebrated in Kotka between August and September 26.8.-3.9.2023. It is a living city event, part of the 125th anniversary of Alvar Aalto. The themes of the event are related to architecture, design and art, and the underlying themes: culture, history and contemporary phenomena. The week of events will feature a wide range of activities, including guided walks and guided tours, housing and interior design events, performances, lectures, shows and exhibitions. Events will take place both in the Sunila district and across the city.
National Heritage Days
The National Heritage Days are coming to Kotka on 8-10 September. The rich programme includes heritage tours, bus and boat trips, discussion chambers, walking tours and many other interesting events related to the Kotka region. The events will be spread around the city during the weekend, but will focus on the Satama Areena in Kantasatama, which will be completed in the summer, and the Vellamo Marine Centre. The theme of the event is “Our home region: fair, bold and with love”, which is inspired by the values of Kotka’s urban strategy.
Hyväntuulen messut
Hyväntuulen messut (The Fair Winds Fair) is a brand new event organised by the City of Kotka, widely intertwined with well-being themes, which will take place on 23-24 September at the Satama Arena. The event is free of charge for fair visitors and offers a wide range of tools for taking care of your own well-being, experiences, ideas and good cheer. The varied programme includes wellbeing-themed exhibitor scores, well-known performers, wellbeing infos, a wellbeing-themed flea market and surprise numbers.
Remember these events
The end of the year also includes the national Baltic Sea Day on 31 August, an annual celebration of the sea launched by the John Nurminen Foundation. Waves! -Light and Sound in Kotka is a city festival for the whole family built around light and sound, which will be held again on 18-21 October.
In addition, Kotka Human Rights Film Festival, an annual film festival in Kotka, will be screened from 24-27 November. The festival’s programme consists of feature and short films, documentaries and animations, with stories about people’s actions and basic social and political issues such as democracy, justice, freedom and environmental protection.
You can find events in Kotka and all of Kymenlaakso on the website Kymenlaaksonyt.fi. You can also register your events free of charge on the site.
Please note! This page is machine translated. We apologise for any errors, please report any mistakes viestinta@kotka.fi.