Sideways

Sideways is the indie, rock and house festival of Fullsteam Agency in Helsinki. Rauha Kyyrö founded it. The agency has been part of FKP Scorpio since 2015, also runs Provinssi and Knotfest Finland, and represents KUUMAA. The first one was on 12 and 13 June 2015, at Teurastamo, in Kalasatama, the old slaughterhouse. Both days sold out. Fullsteam counted 12,000 people. The age line was 18, and with that you could cross from one stage to another with a drink in your hand. There were restaurant terraces and bars with wine, sparkling wine, beer and cider. To eat, burgers, tacos, sandwiches, Japanese food, tapas and cheese. The sun held all weekend. The only hard queue was the toilets: there were few, and the line grew long.

The bill of that first one listed The Jesus and Mary Chain with Psychocandy, Killing Joke, Ariel Pink, The Pharcyde, Earl Sweatshirt and Dizzee Rascal in the slot of Azealia Banks. The Jesus and Mary Chain played the album straight through, from Just Like Honey to It's So Hard, with a huge Psychocandy curtain. Taste of Cindy and You Trip Me Up were the ones that worked best. Then they added three songs, among them April Skies, from Darklands, and Reverence. There were four stages, with a show time every two hours, and the times still collided: Matthew E White and Beatrice Eli overlapped with The Jesus and Mary Chain. In Killing Joke, the weight sat in the guitar of Kevin Walker, Geordie. On Saturday, Silvana Imam blew the grounds open. People threw bras onto the stage. The site was small and you could walk it.

Since 2018 the festival has been at Nordis, the Helsinki ice hall, at Nordenskiöldinkatu 11-13, in Töölö. It uses the ice rink inside and the yard outside. In the spring of 2024 Fullsteam announced that this form would close after 13 to 15 June. Costs had risen and a stadium, the Garden, had been planned for years on the same ground. They had not been able to sign a lease of several years. The form after that was left open.

On Friday 14 June 2024, Fontaines D.C. drew a full crowd, but the singer did not connect. Boys In Better Land lifted the set a little. He wore green Bottega Veneta glasses. KUUMAA played on the Aurora, the stage for the smaller names, though the crowd would have filled the main one. Johannes Brotherus tied his shoelaces as if it were a number and smoked a cigarette. The screen ran insults to the band and messages from fans. After that, on the main stage, Jungle did the show without circus tricks. Channel Tres's guest spot on I've Been In Love came through the screen: he was no longer singing, and he stayed dancing in the picture.

Ursus Factory closed that Friday in the Black Box, inside the ice hall. They opened with the heavier production, and the crowd, after a long night, wanted speed from the first song. On Saturday, Peggy Gou had a party from start to finish and barely moved. An assistant filled her wine glasses and watched the clock. Karri Koira was the last artist of the Töölö run. With his band he put the Black Box into a shout. The sound came through clear, without the mud of the hall. In 2024 even a one-day ticket was swapped for a wristband.

On Friday 12 June 2015, part of the crowd sat on the asphalt with a glass of sparkling wine while Ariel Pink was on stage. Beatrice Eli was on that day too and overlapped with The Jesus and Mary Chain. In the Töölö years Nas came through. The Black Box is the covered ice rink. The Aurora is kept for the shorter names. Fullsteam wrote that they would not force the old form once the ground no longer allowed a lease of several years, and that the June weekend at Nordis had been the last of that run.