Apologies for the silence over the weekend – we’ve been taking a break in Helsinki. Because of it being the darkest part of the year, the city has a week-long night-time festival of light-related art installations, Season of Light, now in its third year. It’s not unlike the “nuit blanche” I saw in Paris earlier in the year, but the 0ºC temperatures and falling sleet onto packed snow made the crowds a little smaller! We were able to tour the closing evening of the 2011 festival, walking snow-covered streets and encountering ambient music and shifting colourscapes.
One favourite was the stunning LED-lit cross in front of the cathedral, which showed a blazingly colourful sequence of abstract images accompanied by rich and full ambient music, shifting strong colours cast onto the building and the snow-field around it and candle-lights in all the windows of the buildings in the square surrounding it. You’ll find more and better photos of the installation at the cathedral on the event’s Facebook page.
Another was the fire dancing, held in a building courtyard north of the cathedral. Full of energy and gentle humour, the agile fire-juggling dancers were clearly having great fun despite the sleet falling on them and were warmly appreciated.
Wild Webmink 
Welcome to Helsinki! Hope you enjoy the stay here, even tough its dark and cold 🙂
Today was the last day of this trip. Hopefully I can come back some time when the days are long and warm!
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Hi,
After la Nuit Blanche and the Season of Light, next year you should come to Lyon for la Fete des Lumieres… I’ll put you up. It’s around the 8th of December, and it’s pretty amazing! You have the sub-zero temperatures of Helsinki, and the crowds of Paris.
Dave.