Kosmos Festival Report: The Gathering of Electronic Tribes Returns for its 10th Anniversary

This year was a tragic one for me, because two of my favorite festivals landed on the same weekend. I’ve been collaborating with Enslain Metal Merch at my favorite heavy festival, Dark River Festival, for a few years now, but unfortunately, since the Hellsinki Metal Festival kicked off, they’ve needed to move to a new weekend. Picking the second weekend of July was a smart move, because there are no worthy competitors in the metal festival scene.

However, in my case, it was very unfortunate because Kosmos Festival usually lands on the first or second weekend of July. As such, I had to miss out on DRF because, let’s face it, I’m just more of a hippy than a metalhead these days, and in the end, I basically live all year for the Kosmos Circus, so alas, I said farewell to my friends and my cozy staff hotel to instead drive out to the boonies to camp and listen to music all night long!

Read the report from 2023 here!
Read the report from 2024 here!

Now, since Kosmos Festival is a little bit of a different beast than your usual mainstream festival, I’ve decided that, rather than going blog-style, as is my traditional method of festival reporting, I’m going to go aspect by aspect. This is because Kosmos is so much more than just music, and there’s really a lot to talk about when it comes to the festival itself, and I’m a rather low-energy person, so “following” me through the festival is surely less interesting, especially since we had to leave early.

Arriving

Arriving to Ristiina was as easy as ever, with permanent road signs on the main highways and streets, leading you in the right direction. Parking was again located in a large and recently trimmed field. It had been raining quite a lot in the days leading up to the festival, and even though the sun was out, they guided us to park very near to an alarmingly big puddle of mud.

We were delighted, however, to not be shoved up the arse end of the parking area this time. Arriving early enough to get a good camping spot has always been synonymous with getting the worst possible parking spot, as first arrivals go to the back of the parking field. As someone with chronic pain and asthma, I appreciated shaving what always feels like half a kilometer off my hike to the campsite.

On leaving the festival on Saturday, we found someone completely stuck in that aforementioned puddle of mud, with some assistance trying to get out, and we were ridiculously fortunate to find that the car in front of ours had left, and so we were able (albeit with some pushing) to drive straight forward out of our spot. I wonder how much trouble they ran into at the end of the festival, because I guarantee that we, too, would have gotten stuck if we hadn’t been able to pull through the parking spot in front of us, on the dry side.

The Campsite

The campsite at Kosmos is a hefty beast, starting with two large areas between the parking and the festival area dedicated to campers and trailers — notably arranged rather differently this year, with vehicles parked with the doors to the road, as opposed to having the windshield facing the road. Couldn’t tell you what caused that change, nor whether it was an improvement, since we hauled our gear into the campsite itself.

The camping area has three main parts: a large space next to the festival entrance, a small space off the path, and another larger space across a grow lot (which was sadly harvested since last year’s festival) where the kiosk and firepit are, for those who need to pick up some essentials or want to cook their own meal. We tried that our first year but ultimately decided that hauling our cooking gear was too much of a hassle, opting ever since to get our meals inside the festival area.

Big groups tend to form in the campsite and there’s no dedicated quiet time, which means your enjoyment of the nighttime likely depends on your tolerance for loud music or talking. Our nearest neighbors, for example, seemed to have gone to bed Thursday night at around 13.00 on Friday. That said, this is to be expected, so if you need some sleep assistance, especially while camping, bring some earplugs or something to help you get some rest.

We had a nice time getting set up, abandoning our usual spot to the left of the entrance, which was pretty sparsely populated in 2023 but by now has gotten to be quite heavily populated, with a lot of psychedelic art, huge tents, and tapestries on display. We chose to return to our camping spot from 2022, near the kiosk in the more distant campsite, which put just the right amount of space between us and the festival area.

Despite the forecast promising beautiful weather all weekend on Thursday, we did get a 4-hour rainstorm, complete with thunder, on Friday around noon — fortunate, again, that we saw this online and put up the tarp, which we had not bothered with beforehand due to the pleasant forecast. Seemed that most people either took that time to have a rest or were out dancing, as it was quite peaceful at the campsite during the thunder and rain.

The Festival Itself

Wristband exchange is great at Kosmos, because you can pick it up casually whenever you like on Wednesday or Thursday (during daylight hours, of course), meaning that those who came before the buses could meander over to the entrance to exchange their tickets at their leisure, with little wait. They’re also quite efficient about it, as there’s usually one fellow working from their phone who checks for people with standard tickets — artists and volunteers need to pick theirs up from the booth, but this guy will fast-pass people whose tickets that don’t require extra info or permissions.

The standard for Kosmos is to only have one possible wristband, but the ticket says whether you can pick it up for Thursday already or not. You’re also usually able to pay about 40€ to upgrade your Friday-Sunday ticket to allow Thursday access as well, if you’re so inclined.

Gates opened on Thursday at 17.00 and unlike last year, there were negligible delays on entry. The crowd cheered as entry was allowed, with many people raising their wristbanded hands as they began the walk down the decorated path that led to the festival’s main hub, surely to allow the gatekeepers to see that yes, they have paid to get in.

They also had a new gate design this year, which was completely stunning — it was intricately crafted and gorgeously painted, but I was surprised and perhaps a wee bit disappointed that the festival’s logo was not included anywhere, either in the arch or nearby. Nevertheless, props to the maker of the new arch because those leaves and lotuses were amazing.

I always like to pause by the Kotilo on entry, just to see if there are any notable changes year-by-year, since it’s fairly static space, for good reason. There are always two peaceful teepee-style tent spaces and a little tent with information that normally hosts at least two people at any given time. I could be wrong, but I think this year they had a newly painted snail sign, which looked absolutely fantastic, so shout-out to whoever made it!

The first thing we always do upon arriving is do a full walkaround of a big chunk of the festival area. I believe we started by the newly updated pirate lounge by the circus dome, making our way to Vortex, up through to Gravity, ignoring Asteroid because it’s never ready when the doors open, instead heading to Spacetime, passing through the art in the woods, popping out in the Oasis, before returning to the other art path, and ending up back in the bazaar. Later, we would explore the totally revamped Asteroid stage and make our way over to the Levitation Station.

The walkways through the forest are always interesting, with little private spaces dotted about, leading toward different stages throughout the woods. We headed to the Vortex main stage because it feels like the sensible place to start.

It’s not uncommon for the festival to still be in the process of getting set up on Thursday, which does beg wonder if they might need to get started a bit earlier? Of course, since most of the stages don’t actually activate when the doors open, it’s not the end of the world if they’re still getting set up, but… there were a few questions when we got to the gazebo at the bazaar, namely regarding the massive crane (mechanical, not bird) in the middle of everything on a pile of gravel/sand, next to a giant pile of mulch.

Despite production leftovers, it was nice to see what was on display. Even better, they had some fun new merch this year and people were able to sort through older festival shirts as well, meaning I was able to pick up one of the brown shirts circa 2022 — a small’s a bit tiny on me right now but I can include it in my collection and maybe do some art with it.

Another thing worth pointing out — and which might explain where a good chunk of the festival’s budget may have gone — was that they’ve apparently run a water line to the bazaar. I’m not sure how much of an endeavor and expense that was, but there was what appeared to be an inverted kelo tree decorated with lights between the gazebo and the Oasis that had around eight (or more?) sinks where people could splash some water on their faces and refill their bottles. I remember thinking, around 2 years back, that it was wild that there were only two faucets for water at the festival (attached to a water truck) — leading at some points to a 30+ minute queue — so this was a massive improvement on the whole and the organizers deserve a shout-out for this because I never once encountered a queue this year.

Vendors

It’s always nice to see Fairy Factory every year, especially this year because my old festival pocket (which is my fancy way of saying “hippy fanny pack”) has been getting pretty worn out and I pretty much leave it in my merch bag these days — I found an excellent replacement! It was also nice to see a few more options for the hippy-style clothing, as well as many trinkets. I’m not a big festival shopper but I did enjoy browsing a bit of everything when I had the chance. Perhaps the oddest stall we found was promoting some sort of Kerava-based board game…

Food

Festival food is always a grab-bag and I wonder if simply not enough vendors know that Kosmos exists for there to be a really proper selection. The places that sell burgers and hot dogs are solid and more or less worth the money you spend on your food. Unfortunately, the CBD shop that has coffee and tea was never open when we were hoping for it (alas, festival life and our weird timetables), so we weren’t able to try it out. The Viet-Thai food place is pretty much always there and equally reliably mediocre. The spring rolls are too big and too expensive, especially when not fresh, the gyoza are okay for the price but nothing to phone home about, and the other big wok meals are generally not good enough to be worth the festival cost. I ended up making the most use of the local stall by folks from nearby Mikkeli, who were selling Finnish crepes — my pleasantly hedonistic brunch each day, definitely worth it. That said, compared to what I’ve heard from other festivals this year, the cost of food at Kosmos is still quite reasonable.

I’ve encountered a lot of interesting food trucks during my years at metal festivals. I’d love to see, for example, the Pallas Pizza Wagon, or… gosh, I wish I knew the name of the vegan place that was at Dark River Festival in 2024, because they had amazing kim chi and tempura — hippy festivals seem like places where there could be a few more options for vegetarian/vegan food. Also, when we came in 2022 or 2023, there was a stall that sold momos [Tibetan dumplings] and I’ve been missing them every year since they came… the price and quality had been perfect for an afternoon snack for one or two people.

Worth mentioning that the bar has moved to the middle of the food truck area in recent years and it’s a great space to sit down and eat at a proper table because people generally don’t bother to linger there for any great length of time, since there are so many more scenic places to lounge. It’s also a nice place to protect yourself in the rain because the tent ceiling gets decorated a bit. The only theoretical downside is that it’s only actually open to non-volunteers during certain daylight hours, so if you wake up early like I do and want to go eat a crepe, you’d better find somewhere else to sit. Which, fortunately, is also not difficult for the aforementioned reason of there being better places to chill anyway. At least in my case, as a notorious spiller and maker of messes, I always appreciate the chance to sit down and eat at an actual table.

Music & Performances

Now, admittedly, I come to Kosmos every year regardless of who is on the roster, simply because (A) I’ve been a heavy metal/rock journalist for 10+ years, so I’m not exactly that familiar with the psych scene yet, and (B) at this point in my life I just like to be surprised by new things live without pressure.

Names that I recognized on the roster included Pootis & Cosmic Soul, Genki, Shvmvvni, and Mystery Sax Girl who was performing with someone called VOLA (sadly not the Danish metal band, but that would have been a wild coincidence, heh). My partner is familiar with Luomuhappo, but last year’s bad luck continued — in 2024, that set was on the programme at a crazy hour in the night, so we didn’t get up for it… only to find out they had been moved to a different time slot anyway. This year, they played on Sunday, and since we had to leave on Saturday, we weren’t able to catch them, yet again. Hopefully they’ll continue to play at Kosmos so we can eventually break this curse.

All of the above-mentioned artists are among the ones I managed to sneak over to see during their sets — save Genki, who was unfortunately playing at 4.00 and I didn’t stay awake that long. Worth saying, too, that nearly all of the aforementioned names are names I know from previous years. I can’t tell you if this was a me-thing or if the artists this year were maybe a bit lackluster — opinions were fairly mixed on that front when I talked to others. I often noticed that bands I saw during my wanderings were doing a good job and the crowd happy and dancing, as per usual, but the music wasn’t luring me in as much as I would have hoped, and a few regular names were absent from the roster.

Now, as I mentioned, I was only been paying attention to psych music in Finland for a few years. I believe it was Thursday when we were having a bit of trouble finding music we were enjoying — Vortex was a bit too choppy in sound, while Spacetime was relying too heavily on reggae, which I tend to get a bit bored of, especially when Spacetime is usually more dedicated to groovy psytrance. We did catch a bit of Sarana’s set while we were sitting in the nearby woods, and I believe I recognized Nebula Meltdown from at least one previous year, and remembered their name positively. I believe we were also able to catch a fair chunk of Tuba Solo over at Spacetime, and we were present for the changeover between the Kiwa Retro Set and Sumiruna over at Vortex.

The first set we paused to actively watch during the weekend was the starting act at the Levitation Station, Andy F, which was surprisingly great. Usually, the music at Levitation Station is too intense for us, as it’s a very fast, high-energy stage. Andy’s set, however, carried a lot of ‘90s/early ‘00s nostalgia in the electronic sound, which was a refreshing way to settle into the festival and get warmed up, without feeling like you needed to dial yourself up to 11 right off the bat. Also, shout-out to Psychedelic Caravan because the deco over at the Levitation Station was fabulous!

Shvmvvni is an artist that I’ve seen once before, in a park event, and recalled enjoying his mystic-from-the-woods-sounding psytrance. His slot this year was at 6.30 in the morning — a dreadful time to be playing, as I think the hardcore partiers peter out by then, and his particular sound would have been ideal for whatever time it is that the sun starts coming up. The forest-y psychedelia in his music would be perfect for that moment when the dark starts turning back towards light… maybe around 4 a.m. instead, or at least during golden hour just before sunset. Regardless, it was fortunate that I woke up with a vengeance (standard practice for me) at about 7 a.m., so I wandered over to enjoy the last half of his show and was grateful to my insomnia for giving me the chance to see hear that music again.

The fellows at Spinsane are also always fun to watch — they’ve clearly been riding their wheel of death for a long time and have a good grasp of both the physics and physicality of it, so I always recommend trying to catch one or more of their shows. This year, I was having a good laugh because after one of the shows, one of the guys went out and started acting like his own hype guy, darting into the audience to cheer and clap and encourage others to do so. He was being quite melodramatic and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

VOLA & Mysterious Sax Girl were a pleasant surprise! I became acquainted with the latter during her big music video project earlier this year and even though I didn’t end up contributing much, I was really interested in what they were doing. I actually really enjoyed the set — the music was really nice and the combination of saxophone (always excellent) and surprisingly good vocals helped to elevate it all.

Pootis & Cosmic Soul had their B2B set before the opening ceremonies on Friday, which was great because they had a really good vibe and atmosphere, riffing well off one another in a really natural way — a great warm-up for the event to follow…

The opening ceremonies were a bit of an unusual situation, because we didn’t know where exactly we were supposed to be looking. As I understood, previous opening ceremonies have been held in the Venus Tent in the Oasis (we wanted to go last year but it was already full, so we respectfully left so as not to over-clog a small space). Since this was the 10th anniversary, it was a much bigger deal and it seemed like nearly everyone came out for it. The ceremony was indeed at the Vortex Stage as promised, but the speakers and performers were on the dance floor, which meant that our effort to move us out of the main crowd also meant that we couldn’t see any of the acts by Roihu, Hobutoh, Mindfunk Monkeys, or the others, and we couldn’t see Elsi Valeriana when she was talking… confused because there were still people up in the DJ booth but they didn’t appear to be the ones speaking when we heard voices. We were a bit sorry to have missed the performances and I was personally a bit sad that the whole thing was in Finnish; considering a lot of non-Finns travel for the festival, it would have been nice if there had been anything there that was a little more international-friendly. That said, the performances did look really cool from the photos and videos that were on socials afterward, so if, like us, you missed the best of it, you can still find parts of it online.

Artwork

This was our fourth year at Kosmos and without question, this was the best year so far for general artwork. Not only am I beginning to recognize some artists, but the new choices were fantastic. Here are some examples:

Riikka Arte/AvaruusDisco’s glow-in-the-dark sheer drapes were lining the entryway path, making for a gorgeous entry and exit from the festival area, day or night. I believe they were also in charge of the tunnels leading to the Levitation Station, which were friggin’ incredible! I wish she would hang those in my house when they’re not in use, and I’m very picky with my artwork.

VV Machine/Mermaid Slaughterhouse had a lot of artwork in the woods again, this year featuring a lot more fish leather. (Trypophobia warning in this gallery!) I love the intricacy and natural details that go into the woodcrafting! It’s always really natural and creative.

The mandalas by Papa Psy looked cool as hell during the day and even cooler at night. It seems the “pirate cafe” next to the circus dome was also revamped and made even more piratey this year.

Emmi-Riikka was doing some live painting once in a while near the Vortex stage. She’s also responsible for the festival artwork, so you can obviously find her art all over the place — namely, on people’s shirts!

Konna had some artwork at Spacetime stage, and possibly in some other places throughout the forest too — I don’t think I have any photos because I saw most of them after the fact online and was sorry I didn’t get a closer look IRL. This year involved some white faces with hair made from leafy branches. I bet they looked wild at night.

This was also perhaps the best year yet for painted prints in the forest gallery as well, with Silver Kontus being an absolute highlight of this year’s festival — his images gave me everything I love about everything, filling me with mysticism and magic and a desire to get back to writing psychedelic children’s books. Shout-out to the others in the gallery though, because everything was incredible this year.

And of course, I would be loathe to not talk about the stage design. As mentioned, Vortex is always a highlight, with Temple Deco returning this year after last year’s break. They had a lot of solid, vivid colors this time around, which were mesmerizing and looked entirely different at night. And, NoxFelix had totally redone the stage design, abandoning the owlish look from previous years and replacing it with something more feathery and winged. I love it — Vortex is always a highlight and the most natural place to go chill in the festival area. The chill space in the forest behind it was also magically decorated.

Let us not forget the other stages though, and you’ll have to forgive me because I don’t know who to credit for a lot of this, but I do appreciate when the other Kosmos artists let me know!

Spacetime is my personal favorite stage, because of the use of intricately designed wooden panels that have little lights in them that really come alive at night in an amazing way. Plus, the two paths leading in and out of Spacetime have some of the most fantastic nighttime artwork, with mandalas this year on the path that led toward Asteroid. I was told that the artists of KIVA have a few different pieces from which they craft the stage, which they can alter as they see fit — this year was apparently a space beast called Zxyplt (read its story and see better pictures/videos over here!).

I was told that 2024 was a teaser for what they’ve been working on at Gravity, and while every stage has a hard time topping Spacetime at night, they’re doing fantastic work over there — I’m still loving the new design with these geometric shapes that invoke a feeling of Portal-meets-RP dice. It’s also got the least tree cover at night, which makes it an epic spot to be during sunset, especially since it goes down behind the stage.

Worth mentioning as well that Asteroid stage, which is usually rather complicatedly woven out of twigs and branches — often freshly cut — had gotten a complete revamp this year, looking bigger and better than it has the last few years… and it looked good the last few years. Sadly, there weren’t any bands that I recognized playing there this year — it’s the one stage where I’m most likely to know artists because actual bands play on that stage, as opposed to DJs, but there were sadly no familiar names this year for me. I did sneak over to get a look at it a couple times though and it was pretty fantastic.

And then there’s the rest of it… from the drapery and woven decorations in the woods next to Vortex, to the Spacetime pathways, and the woods between Gravity and the skate park, there are endless sights to see. New this year was an interesting hanging space amongst the birch trees, a cluster of warped mirrors, and some psychedelic spaces where you could watch equalizers on screens. Despite my best efforts, I still seem to miss things each year. The best part? Come out at night and it’s a whole new world.

The Oasis & Lagoon

If I could live in the Kosmos Oasis throughout the year, I would. I wish they would come and decorate my entire yard and home the way they set up the Oasis. It’s such a scenic place to sit and eat or relax, pretty much any time of day. The best part, too, is that the festival isn’t so large that it’s impossible to ever find seating over there. Even at the busiest time of day, it’s extremely relaxed. At some point, I was a little confused because one of the seats was taken up by a rather large plush unicorn… I dared not disturb it, however, as it seemed quite content where it was.

Once again, probably largely because I wasn’t at the festival as long as usual this year, I didn’t end up going to any classes, ceremonies, or other seminars, which bums me out but such is life. I was really interested in the Taoist standing meditation and self-massage over at the Lagoon, which I believe was available twice (or I was reading the programme wrong), but we had hoped to try it out on Friday and lo and behold… it was right when the rain started, so of course we wimped out. There were certainly a lot of people down there on Saturday though, having a swim and/or sauna. Having a lake right at the festival site is always a big plus, especially when camping.

The Circus

Ahhh, my favorite part of Kosmos Festival… this is highlight for me most years, which makes me wonder if any of the other hippy festivals commonly have performance and fire shows, because if so, I need to start going. Some familiar favorites from previous years were back yet again, including Tuliryhmä Roihu, Amandariini, Hobutoh, and Miia Haanpää on Friday, but there was a lot of excellent talent on display all weekend!

I was devastated to miss the Circus on Saturday, because there were so many artists I wanted to see, like Dancing Mona Lisa, Minttu Asikainen, TuliZukka, Safa Solati, Valosirkus Spektri, and Avaruus Ronja, as well as the fire jam with music from Papa Psy. This is really my favorite part of the weekend and it absolutely killed me that I had to leave before it started, but thankfully there were videos on Instagram that at least let me lived vicariously through others.

That said, we watched most of the Circus on Friday, and I was really impressed by everyone I saw. I’m rather in endless awe of people who dedicate so much of themselves to being good at performance arts, and there’s so many fun and creative things on display. For example, despite having been rather obsessed with fire dancers for a few years now, I was delighted to see a few of them with some new tricks and tools that I haven’t seen before, like a flaming stick on a rope, fire boots, and more! Truly, I could waste away watching fire dancers and never get bored. Alas, I missed the flaming skirt whirl from Safa Solati on Saturday, but at least I caught her last year. My greatest lamentation is not having a photographer with me who can shoot at night, because I never get good shots of these performances. Perhaps next year I’ll bring one along?

Of note, in 2024, the announcer at the Circus had left something to be desired. This year, I believe it was a different host, and this one was a bit better, but she still didn’t come across as someone confidently in their element; rather, it was still fairly clunky and unrehearsed. This seems to be a place that still needs some fine-tuning.

Safety

I have to give the first-aide station a shout-out this year! It did not take long for me to remember that it is always wise for me to tape up my first two toes on either foot before festivals, as they tend to blister very badly, very easily. I forgot, of course, but made my way to the first-aide truck. Despite being allergic to most glues, thus rendering all standard bandages useless, they managed to find a bit of the exact skin tape that I’m not allergic to and was thus able to wrap up my toes and make my weekend infinitely less painful. So thanks to the folks there who helped me out, you guys are champs!

…I then realized that I actually had skin tape in my bag the whole time and was suffering for no reason [insert facepalm here].

What Could Be Done Better

On the whole, I don’t have a lot of complaints about Kosmos Festival in general and the ones that I do have are minor — certainly not experience-breakers. Despite being a festival run with the help of about 400 volunteers, it flows astonishingly well and the biggest issues likely relate to funding and time more than any lack of general functionality or effort. To put it succinctly, these guys do great work.

That said, last year it rained most of the weekend and my biggest ask was for them to mulch the paths, because they turn into a devastating obstacle course that’s outright dangerous (especially at night) unless you’re willing to go barefoot and just walk through the mud. Mulch is barely splintery, softens when wet, is organic for the forest, and will save a lot of people a lot of grief in that main trail leading to Vortex, as well as the inner forest paths. They didn’t do it, which was disappointing because I mentioned there was just a big pile of it in a relatively dry place by that aforementioned crane… hey, give me a shovel and a wheelbarrow, and I’ll come a day early to mulch the paths myself! [Ed: it seems that the heavy rainfall on the Tuesday pre-festival was what used up most of their allotted gravel and mulch at the main stage, unfortunately]

I also mentioned a crane sitting in a pile of gravel next to the gazebo. It was surely a bit weird to have a massive piece of machinery in the middle of a festival area, since there are roads leading in and out, and… there was surely some space they could have at least tucked it that was out of the way? Once again, I have to assume there was some reason for that being left there, but it was weird and unfortunate because it blocked the view of a lot of the exceptionally cool wooden statues that were decorating the gazebo. A bit out of place in a hippy festival, to say the least.

And if this is where I’m being whiny… more toilets are always appreciated. I was told that there were more this year, though admittedly I didn’t notice where. I’m still of the opinion that they should stick a few more over where the first aid station is. I’m guessing that this is a cost issue, which is understandable, but having to try to use the toilet when the previous person’s business is at -2cm to where you want your business to start coming from is… gnarly. If more toilets gets to be an unreasonable ask, it would have been nice for the septic truck to have shown up a bit earlier, like I feel it was in previous years? Correct me if I’m wrong — it’s possible that I’m thinking of Nummirock 2022 — but I thought, in the past, that the septic truck showed up around 7.00, so that when most people stumble out of their tents with full bladders, etc., there were fresh toilets waiting for them. This year, he only showed up around 10.00 and it takes an hour or so per each toilet space, so we had some unpleasant morning toilet trips because of it. Tip to newcomers: bring a roll of toilet paper and a small bottle of hand sanitizer with you and keep some on-hand in the evenings through to early mornings. Ultimately, people start going in the woods and it starts to get a little nasty by Saturday night… but I can’t blame them because the toilets get unusable.

Now, if I do have one actual genuine ask for the festival, it would be to offer more ticket options. I know they generally only have one wristband for all attendees, so I assume this is another matter of cost, because Kosmos has by far the nicest wristbands of any festival I’ve ever been to, period, in both quality and design. However, I admit that I am getting pretty old and don’t have it in me to camp all weekend like I did in my youth. It would be really perfect for tired old folks like me to be able to come for a day or two to get the most of the atmosphere and enjoy the festival, without needing to commit to 4 full days, and if you’re only able to come for 2 days due to work schedules and other such things, as was our case this year, having to pay the full price of a 4-day ticket for 2½-days felt pretty steep for my partner, especially when the cost of festivals is rising and wages in Finland notoriously are not.

Final Thoughts

In the end, I adore Kosmos Festival. The size, style, atmosphere, music, performances, art, and everything else are all exactly what I need in life. Personally, I only wish that I wasn’t so shy to talk to Finnish people (thanks, everywhere else in Finland), because it would be nice to meet more people at the festival. I was a little bit heartbroken when we were leaving on Saturday because a bunch of people started calling to us to come hang out rather than leave. If you’re going to find really open people in Finland, Kosmos is absolutely the first place to look, but I’m afraid this country has beaten me into quietude and I don’t know how to approach strangers anymore.

But when it comes to art, style, music, size… pretty much everything, Kosmos remains one of my favorite festivals and my #1 go-to each year. There’s always more to do than I can possibly handle, the workshops are different every year, and at almost any hour, there’s music playing, day or night, which is really what separates and elevates it above the festivals I’m used to.

So a huge round of applause to all of the 400 or so volunteers and other organizers who keep this festival running. You guys are champs and thanks for creating such a magical gathering of electronic tribes!

Note from the Author: If you enjoyed this festival report, perhaps you might enjoy reading life stories set in a fictional world where festivals and mindsets like that of Kosmos are commonplace. If that sounds interesting, please check out my novella series, The Vitmar Chronicles… a slice-of-life coming-of-age series that follows two brothers as they navigate life’s ups and downs.

Read the free sample here — Learn about the series here — Find it on Amazon (EU link, but you can find it in all countries), Google, Kobo, and the Draft2Digital Network — Or via paid subscription on Substack! Volume II is due for release on August 22nd!

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FESTIVAL REPORT: Kosmos Festival 2025