My go-to cultural activities in Helsinki

As a university student, I spend a great portion of my time attending lectures, exercise sessions, and studying for exams. This, along with other responsibilities such as doing groceries and cooking (while trying to come up with new recipes), sometimes gets tiring and overwhelming. An easy way to take your mind off things is to take part in the many student events happening on and out of campus all year round. But what I found more grounding is stepping outside of this student-life bubble by spending time in nature or immersing myself in culture. 

Helsinki makes that incredibly easy. A 10-minute metro ride from campus will drop you off in the center of the city, where you can find many different museums, cinemas, and places to enjoy live music.

This blog post will serve as a guide to the museums, cinemas, and music in Helsinki. I’ll list some of my personal favourites as well as give additional recommendations. So, if you’re looking for relaxing things to do around Helsinki, stick around!

MUSEUMS:

The museums I like to go to in Helsinki are Ateneum Museum and Helsinki Art Museum. Both are on the classical side and are located very close to the central railway station and Kamppi metro stations, so they’re super easily accessible from campus. They have permanent as well as temporary exhibitions, so it’s nice to come back multiple times to see different art.

Ateneum Museum - https://ateneum.fi/ (across from central station)

Helsinki Art Museum - https://www.hamhelsinki.fi/en/ (close to Kamppi)

If you are more into contemporary art, you can check out Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, which is also located in the city center, close to the central railway station.

Kiasma contemporary art museum - https://kiasma.fi/en/ (close to central railway station)

A nice thing to know about is that museums in Helsinki offer cheaper tickets for students and almost all have free admission days at least once a month! Typically, it’s a specific day of the month for each museum, but you can check it out in more detail here, as well as find other museums not mentioned in this blog post:

https://www.myhelsinki.fi/visit/free-admission-days-at-museums-in-helsinki/ 

I like to put down free admission days for the museums I’m interested in visiting in my calendar, so that I always know when it’s convenient to visit one. Keep in mind, the website linked above doesn’t show information about all free admission days in Helsinki, so it’s worthwhile to check that out on the museum’s official website. For example, Ateneum museum (my personal favourite) has free admission days 4 times a year.

Additionally, if you’re an avid museum fan, you might want to consider getting a museum card:https://museot.fi/museumcard It’s only 86 euros a year, and you get free access to more than 360 museums across Finland!

MOVIES:

The largest cinema operator in Finland is Finnkino. They have many locations all over Helsinki and Espoo, which is convenient. This is your standard cinema that shows mostly new releases, however, they are more expensive compared to other available options.

Personally, I have never been to a Finnkino cinema, as I prefer going to smaller locations. One of my favourites is Orion cinema in Kamppi (city center). It has been in use since 1928, so it has that old cinema vibe that is missing from modern day cinemas. Alongside new releases, they also offer a lot of older or more niche films you won’t see in the big cinemas, which is awesome, because for a student price ticket of 9.50 euros, you get to experience movies you probably wouldn’t have watched otherwise. One downside of Orion cinema is that foreign films typically only have Finnish and Swedish subtitles.

My current favourite is the student-run Sheryl Cinema, which only opened last year! It is located on campus, super close to the metro station, and offers a wide variety of films, ranging from new releases to David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino. The cinema is brand new, so even for a small price of 9 euros for a student ticket, you get awesome sound and visual quality! They also have a serial ticket, which gives 5 tickets for the price of 4. I love going to Cinema Sheryl because it’s super close to my house and I don’t have to= get tickets in advance, as it rarely gets very busy.

Cinemas:

Finnkino - https://www.finnkino.fi/ 

Orion cinema - https://cinemaorion.fi/ 

Cinema Sheryl - https://sheryl.fi/ 

Film festivals:

Helsinki also offers a wide variety of film festivals, some of which are listed below. I haven’t been to one yet, but it is definitely on my to-do list for next year!

https://hiff.fi/ - Helsinki film festival, largest international film festival in Finland, held in September

https://helsinkicineaasia.fi/ - asian film festival, held in March

https://www.nightvisions.info/wp/en/ - fantasy, horror, sci-fi festival, held in March

https://espoocine.fi/ - Espoocine festival, new European cinema, end of August (before academic year - might be nice for new students)

MUSIC:

Somehow, it feels like Finland is a forgotten place music artists tend to avoid, skipping it on tours while they visit Sweden, Denmark, and even Norway. That is not to say there are no concerts happening here, because there are, you just have to keep an eye out on various (venue) platforms. Last year I got to go to two Russian concerts, which was a lot of fun. Something I discovered this year, though, is the Musiikitalo (Music Hall) in Helsinki. They have classical music concerts every day with varying price ranges. As student, you can get seats in the first rows (highly recommend!) for the evening concerts for 24 euros, while afternoon concerts at 13:00 are only 8 euros! It’s an awesome experience every now and then, and I highly recommend checking it out. You can have a look at upcoming concerts in Musiikitalo here: https://musiikkitalo.fi/ 

I am by no means an expert on the topic, and I find new spots to visit all the time. Hopefully I inspired you to spend some time discovering Helsinki’s cultural side! If you’d like more information, I would recommend checking out the City of Helsinki website for relevant events, exhibitions, and concerts here: https://www.hel.fi/en/culture-and-leisure/culture 

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