This year's Flow Festival in Helsinki, taking place this weekend (Friday Aug. 12 - Sunday Aug. 14), will for most people be the last festival of the summer. And what a way to close the season. If you've already grabbed your ticket, you'll probably be counting down the seconds. Even if you're a last-minute kind of person with a chronic aversion to forward planning, well, you might still get lucky with a ticket. And if you are that kind of person, chances are you've yet to plan out which stages you'll be at and at what time.
It's quite a line-up this year, and a pretty eclectic one at that, so planning is a must. There's punk from The Descendents and Iggy Pop, indie from New Order, Morrissey and Daughter, futuristic pop from Sia, FKA Twigs and Dua Lipa, a tonne of house and techno with Jeff Mills, The Black Madonna, Helena Hauff and DJ Pierre, hip-hop from Lil B, grime from Stormzy and countless other sounds blasting out across the Finnish capital. Whatever you're into, there'll be more than enough for you to gorge on. Still, with 11 different stages, you'll need to be a logistics savant—or you could just scroll through and check out our essential picks.
Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals
Jeff Mills
Massive Attack & Young Fathers
Building on the huge success of their recent collaboration on "Voodoo In My Blood", Bristol soundboys Massive Attack and Mercury Prize-winning trio Young Fathers will play a b2b set at this year's Flow Festival. Hopefully this will be a chance to hear the two acts rework each other's tracks into the kind of magic we heard on "Voodoo...". Who doesn't want to hear Alloysious Massaquoi put his own spin on "Teardrop" or "Karmacoma"? We're not sure how long this collaboration is going to last, so get yourself to the main stage on Friday night and make the most of it while you still can.
Catch Massive Attack & Young Fathers on Friday, 10.45pm at the Main Stage.
Iggy Pop
A lot of comparisons are being made right now between punk and grime, so what better time to see one of the genre and movement's principal architects? He may be somewhat older than Wiley and Skepta but after all these years, Iggy Pop is still full of fire and will give any MC a run for their stageshow money. As much as anything, it'll be a good opportunity to see the menacing dirge of iconic tracks like "I Wanna Be Your Dog" or the primal mania of "No Fun" and "Lust For Life".
Catch Iggy Pop on Friday, 8.45pm at the Main Stage.