Annikki Poetry Festival (est. 2003) is one of Finland’s most international and significant poetry events and original cultural festivals. It has also spawned Annikki OFF, a three-day series of events around the city. We have invited high profile international poetry performers, for example John Cooper Clarke (UK) and Mutabaruka (JAM). Annikki Poetry Festival is organised by volunteers every two years.

The Annikki Poetry Festival will be held on 8 June 2024 from 11 am to 10 pm in the courtyard of the Annikki Wooden Quarter in Tampere, Finland. The theme for the 2024 Annikki Poetry Festival is “Personal”. The festival will once again feature prominent international performers, a fine selection of Finnish poets as well as music, prose writers, open mic, children’s programme and visual arts. The performers are Stephen James Smith (IE), Abdulla Pashew (Kurdistan / FI), Aulikki Oksanen & Kielo Kärkkäinen, Sirpa Kähkönen, Lyyti, Risto Ahti, Maija Kauhanen, Piki Rantanen, Iida Rauma, Rosanna Fellman, Hassan Maikal, Tommi Liimatta, Tuukka Terho & Heikki Nikula, Vilma Talvitie, Ritva Hokka and Ranja Omena.

The venue of the Annikki Poetry Festival is the 110-year-old Annikki Wooden Quarter in the centre of Tampere city, which has served as a very special, warm and welcoming milieu for poets and audience to meet and mingle.