Culture

Museums:

The biggest historical museum in Helsinki is the National Museum of Finland, which displays a vast historical collection from prehistoric times to the 21st century. Other major historical museum is the Helsinki City Museum, which introduces visitors to Helsinki's 500-year history. The University of Helsinki also has many significant museums, including the University Museum and the Natural History Museum. The Finnish National Gallery consists of three museums: Ateneum Art Museum for classical Finnish art, Sinebrychoff Art Museum for classical European art, and Kiasma Art Museum for modern art.

Theatres:

Helsinki has three major theatres: The Finnish National Theatre, the Helsinki City Theatre, and the Finland Swedish Svenska Teatern. The city's main musical venues are the Finnish National Opera, the Finlandia concert hall and the Helsinki Music Centre. Bigger concerts and events are usually held at one of the city's two big ice hockey arenas: the Hartwall Areena or the Helsinki Ice Hall. Helsinki has Finland's largest fairgrounds.

Music:

Helsinki is home to two full-size symphony orchestras, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, both of which perform at the Helsinki Music Centre concert hall. The Finnish National Opera, the only full-time, professional opera company in Finland, is located in Helsinki. The opera singer Martti Walln, one of the company's long-time soloists, was born and raised in Helsinki. Many bands have originated in Helsinki, including Hanoi Rocks, HIM (His Infernal Majesty), Stratovarius, The 69 Eyes, Finntroll, Ensiferum, Wintersun, The Rasmus, Apocalyptica, Nightwish, Wintersun, Sonata Arctica, Children of Bodom, Lordi and Amorphis. Finnish love for metal music and the success of Finnish metal bands has often been explained with references to the long, dark, cold winters and the melancholic nature, along with the natural beauty of the landscape and rich folklore tradition on which the lyrical themes are often based on.

Art:

Helsinki also hosts many film festivals. Most of them are small venues, but some have gained renown even abroad. The most prolific would be the Love & Anarchy film festival (also known as Helsinki International Film Festival), which features films on a wide spectrum. Night Visions Film Festival on the other hand focuses on genre cinema, screening horror, fantasy and science fiction films in very popular movie marathons that take whole night. Another popular film festival is DocPoint, a festival that focuses solely on documentary cinema. Helsinki Arena hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, the first Eurovision Song Contest arranged in Finland, following Lordi's win in 2006. Helsinki is home of some gobal brands such as Nokia, Kone and Marimekko, popular events, like the annual Helsinki Design Week, outstanding education and research institutions, such as the University of Art and Design Helsinki. At the Senate Square in September / October 2010, the largest open-air art exhibition ever in Finland took place: About 1.4 million people saw the international exhibition of United Buddy Bears.