Solstice Presents

Solstice Festival’s Midsummer Prelude Concert opened the 2025 festival programme at Helsinki’s iconic Temppeliaukio Church, marking the arrival of the season of light within one of the city’s most extraordinary architectural landmarks. Carved directly into solid rock, the church’s raw stone walls and copper dome created a singular acoustic and visual setting, allowing experimental music to unfold with remarkable depth and clarity in the early summer evening. The one-night concert brought together James K and Pavel Milyakov in a programme shaped by the season and the church’s unique architecture. James K filled the space with an ethereal mix of vocals, modular synths and electric guitar, while Milyakov premiered a new, more meditative live concept featuring compositions created with the late Ukrainian artist Yana Pavlova, performed live in Helsinki for the first time.