Heavy Metal Kids

Finland is not just thousands of lakes, Santa Claus and reindeers. It is also a country with the most heavy metal bands per capita. I spent a weekend photographing at the Tuska metal festival in Helsinki where tens of thousands metalheads gather every summer together to celebrate their culture in the heavy metal capital of the world. The festival is built right next to the city center on an empty parking lot surrounded by the old industrial buildings. For the festival weekend this space is isolated from the real world by chain link fences and gates and it is transformed into a magical realm where people from all across the world come together and give up their inhibitions to be who they really are. Instead of what you could stereotypically expect to find at a metal festival; darkness, frowns and loud music, of those three I only discovered loud music during the weekend. There were people from all across the globe, from all ages and ethnicities – on Sunday afternoon there was even a time slot dedicated to little children when people in the mosh pit were told to watchout for the youngest. To put in short, during the weekend I discovered joy, companionship, individuality and the love for heavy music being the main characteristics of the metal fans