Beer Floating

I got off the ferry back from Estonia heavy from sleep, a little disoriented from the journey. This often hits me when I sleep on public transport across international borders – the deep deep sleep I get while gently rocked by the road/rails/waves combines with the new language and location to set me back a bit for the first few hours.

The stuporous cloud swiftly dissipated that morning though, as I remembered what the day had in store for us.

Back in Saint Petersburg, our friend Holly told us that she was jealous we were heading to Helsinki so soon, as that meant that we would be there in time for the kaljakellunta, which she would sadly miss by a day or two. Kaljakellunta literally translates from Finnish as ‘Beer Floating’.

The Finns take naming things very literally it seems, as beer floating is just that; floating down a river with some beer. People get together to enjoy the summer in anything that will float; we saw everything from rubber rings, small boats, and lilos to huge home-made rafts with sofas on them. The vessel of choice seems to be the inflatable paddling pool though- big enough to fit a few friends in, stable in the water, and cheap enough to be relatively disposable.

People were turning out in all sorts of crazy homemade crafts. Both images taken from google, as we didn’t want to get our cameras wet once we got started.

Much more than that though, the kaljakellunta has evolved into a real cultural event in Helsinki’s calender. Now in its seventeenth year, it has been steadily growing and growing, to this years estimated 7000 attendees. We were told that it’s a distinctly local event, with something like 85-90% of the attendees coming from Helsinki itself, although we did meet a couple of Russians, and a handful of Brits. We learned later there is another, much smaller version in Oulu in the north of the country, but that seems to pale in comparison.

We were hopelessly unprepared for the event when we got off the ferry in the morning. No beer, nothing that would float (Harrison’s snorkel notwithstanding!); we didn’t know where it was held, or when everyone was congregating.

This was just the start of it; incredibly, it gets busier further downstream

It is an anarchically organised event, in the sense that there is no central organisation at all. The date is voted for online, but without an organising body there is no deadline for votes, nor any structure for appropriate times. It is incredibly chaotic, but in a wonderfully Nordic fashion, it all seems to work out- every year.

This does however mean that it is tricky for a non-Finnish speaker to find out the details in advance. We had to resort to asking our hostel receptionist to do some Finnish-language googling for us, which solved the first hurdle for us. (Side note, the Stadion Hostel in Helsinki is highly recommended by the three unwise men – the staff there bent over backwards to help us out and make our stay there a good one!). For anyone wanting to go another year, it starts at the confluence of the Vantaa and Kerava rivers, then follows the course of the Vantaa downstream.

The mayhem at the starting point. It was fantastic.

We then needed our supplies, but after a quick (and somewhat difficult and stressful) last minute shop in the city center, we were set. Or so we thought.

We turned up to the start line a few hours after the official start date to find everything still in full swing, and got pumping on our inflatable.

We quickly discovered our glaring error; we had bought a large pool- one with an inflatable top ring which was held rigid by the water inside it. If we put it into the water, all we’d have would have been an inflated ring connected by a steadily filling tarp.

Myke realising our error, then realising that it didn’t really matter, because we could improvise. At an event like this, the small matter of not bringing a suitable craft isn’t important.

Fortunately for us, our late arrival meant that there were a few Finns leaving the kaljakellunta, and we were able to buy a decent paddling pool from some of them. We pushed off, and joined the maelstrom.

Our new vessel; a kids paddling pool with 3D fish on the bottom- it came equipped with red-and-blue goggles!

Once in the crowd, the beer floating has the feel of a relaxed festival. Only, one where everyone was floating down a river together. You drift a while, then tie your vessel to another group and chat and hang out for a while – sharing your beers and their sima & vodka (sima being a popular Finnish speciality – a sweet honey flavoured mead, usually home-brewed), before detaching and meeting up with different people downriver. The Vantaa is incredibly slow flowing, particularly in the midst of the incredibly hot summer Finland was experiencing, so it is a fairly sedate ride. Punctuated of course with swimming, jumping off bridges and generally revelling in the uncharacteristic heat.

Image taken from a Finnish news site, which added that “Helsinki Police reported in the afternoon that the record number of imbibing revellers had behaved well so far, with no disturbances.” It really is an incredible event – friendly and relaxed in a way that I can’t really imagine a UK version being.

We had an amazing time drifting and meeting new friends. After jumping between different groups for a while we hit a knot of vessels, a traffic jam that stretched as far as we could see, with a large raft with music and a barbecue in the center. Here we met up with Santi, Ian, and a group of others whose names I’ve since forgotten. Ian was an Englishman living in Finland, and Santi was a Finn with an Essex accent, as she’d lived there for a while. They were great fun, and we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging with them; sharing beers and jumping between our different crafts.

At some point during the night, the three unwise men were separated, with some of us ending up staying with Santi’s family in the outskirts of Helsinki, while only one of us made it back to the hostel (I’ll leave it up to you to guess which was which).

The following morning we met up again, accompanied by our new friends, for a picnic in the park. It was time to leave Helsinki and head North, but after experiencing Finnish hospitality and the fun of a Finnish summer we have already made plans to come back next year.