Info
Ilosaarirock, known locally as the best weekend of the summer, takes place over three days in Joensuu, Finland from the 12th to the 14th of July, 2024. The festival is held at a scenic lakeside location, and is within walking distance from the city centre.
Ilosaarirock has been running since 1971. The festival is organised by Joensuu Pop Musicians’ Association, a non-profit organisation founded on the idea of supporting the local live music scene.
Ilosaarirock Festival is much loved and treasured by both the organisers and guests, bringing together a crowd of some 70 000 people annually for one happy, lively and openminded weekend. You can read more about the festival and its organisers here.
Three-day tickets and three-day VIP tickets to the 2024 edition of Ilosaarirock Festival are currently available for purchase. Other ticket types, including two-day and one-day tickets, will be available for purchase at a later date.
Ticket Prices (valid until 31st of December, 2023):
3 DAYS 189 €
VIP 3 DAYS 299 €
Possible service and delivery fees will be added on to the ticket prices at point of purchase.
All festival tickets will be exchanged for wristbands before entering the festival area.
Tickets to the 2024 edition of Ilosaarirock Festival can be purchased through our website or from Lippu.fi and Tiketti’s web stores and outlets.
In Joensuu, you can also purchase tickets at Prisma and at all R-kioski’s. You can check your nearest points of sale on each of the ticket sellers’ websites.
Ilosaarirock VIP offers an exclusive and unforgettable way to experience the festival. Our VIP customers gain access to restricted VIP areas near the festival’s biggest stages. Comfortable seating areas and exclusive drink menus available only to our VIP customers are just a few of the perks that come with the Ilosaarirock VIP experience.
Ilosaarirock’s VIP is R-18. Please note that the VIP tickets do not include any food or drink.
You can read more about Ilosaarirock’s VIP services here.
Ilosaarirock Festival does not have an age limit, but we do recommend that children under 12 years old are accompanied by an adult. Under 8-year-olds get in for free with an adult who has purchased a ticket. The free one-day wristbands can be picked up from the info point.
If you do attend Ilosaarirock with children, please do so on the children’s terms. Please offer a safe and substance-free festival experience to all children. Please also note that late nights and a crowd of tens of thousands of festival guests are not a suitable environment for the youngest and smallest of the family.
Ilosaarirock reserves the right to make changes to the festival lineup, schedules, and other logistical details. Any possible changes will be communicated immediately. In accordance with common practices in the live music industry, festival tickets cannot be refunded due to individual artist cancellations, and no refunds will be issued for such changes.
Ilosaarirock takes place in Joensuu, Eastern Finland, in the Laulurinne park, which is located approximately one kilometre from the Joensuu city centre. The city is easily reached by train, bus, air or by car.
The Joensuu railway station and bus stops are approximately 1,5 kilometers away from the Ilosaarirock festival site.
If you are driving to Ilosaarirock, it’s a great idea to load up the car with other festival-goers – it’s fun and also better for the environment!
Audience transport to and from Ilosaarirock puts more strain on the environment than any other aspect of the event. That’s why we encourage everyone to arrive by foot or bike, if possible, or by public transport or car shares. In addition to saving money and having fun company for the ride, you’ll be doing Mother Nature a favour too!
You can leave your bike in a secure cycle parking area located near the festival entrance. The paid bicycle park is open all festival weekend long. Please collect your bike from the bicycle parking area before it closes. There are no guards in the cycle parking area at night, and Ilosaarirock is not responsible for any uncollected items left there.
For festival attendees arriving by passenger cars, there is designated asphalt parking space available. Please note that the parking area is not monitored at night. Sleeping in cars is strictly forbidden.
During the Ilosaarirock Festival week, street parking in the Joensuu city centre and near the festival site may be prohibited, and allowed parking times may differ from the usual.
Festival attendees coming from outside Joensuu have the option to stay in the city's hotels, campsites (including RVs), or private accommodations, such as rental homes or apartments provided by local individuals during the Ilosaarirock weekend.
The nearest hotels are located in Joensuu city centre, approximately a 1,5 kilometre distance from the Ilosaarirock festival site. We strongly recommend booking your hotel stay well in advance as the city of Joensuu tends to get very busy during the Ilosaarirock weekend!
Check out the local hotels:
Sokos Hotel Kimmel
Sokos Hotel Vaakuna
Scandic Hotel Joensuu
GreenStar Hotel Joensuu
Lietsu Boutique Aparthotel
Ilosaarirock does not have its own official campsite. However, for festival attendees who’d like to camp, we recommend Holiday Linnunlahti, a campsite located right next to the festival area. At the popular Holiday Linnunlahti, accommodation options include camping, rental cottages, and caravan stays.
Holiday Linnunlahti is responsible for the arrangements of its campsite and the sale of accommodation tickets. For any inquiries related to camping, please contact Holiday Linnunlahti directly.
More information and bookings:
www.linnunlahti.fi
sales@linnunlahti.fi
In addition to Holiday Linnunlahti, near the Ilosaarirock festival area, you'll find Jokiasema's caravan area, catering to customers staying in motorhomes during the festival weekend. Jokiasema also has a guest harbor for those arriving by water. Jokiasema is responsible for the arrangements and sales of spaces in the caravan area.
Once Ilosaarirock nears, more private accommodation options become available. Accommodations such as locals’ apartments and vacation homes can be searched for on AirBnb or Tori.fi.
Please be aware of possible scammers when reserving your private accommodations! We recommend you book your stay via verified channels or people you know and can identify. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is! Ilosaarirock Festival is not responsible for any possible scams you may encounter when reserving a private accommodation.
Please remember to respect the local residents' privacy in the nearby area and avoid littering as well as loitering in the yards of residential buildings.
Ilosaarirock’s festival site, the Laulurinne park area, has plenty of lawn and a nice, shallow beach. Walking from place to place within the festival grounds is mainly done on sandy pathways. The festival site is mostly flat, except for the incline leading to the back section of the festival area.
Throughout the weekend, festival goers are treated to an amazing musical program, additional entertainment, visual experiences as well as tasty food and drink. That’s what we call summer’s best weekend!
The accepted methods of payment at Ilosaarirock are the most common debit cards, credit cards as well as contactless payment and contactless mobile payment methods.
Within the festival area, cash payments are not accepted. Cash is also not accepted as a payment method at the information point located outside the festival, the bike parking area, or Ilosaarirock's designated parking lots.
Information Point and Lost & Found
The Ilosaarirock Information Point is located near the main entrance to the festival. The information point will solve all the festival goers’ problems from a missing ticket to a lost backpack. The info point also sells festival tickets, unless they are sold out in advance.
During the festival weekend, the information point is also the Ilosaarirock Lost & Found.
The cloakroom & property lock-up, where you can leave your extra belongings for a fee, is located near the main entrance to the festival. The cloakroom is open on every festival day.
Make sure to collect your belongings from the cloakroom before it closes. All uncollected belongings will be delivered to the Lost & Found located at the Info Point. Ilosaarirock is not responsible for any uncollected items.
There are plenty of food vendors and eateries around the Ilosaarirock festival grounds serving hungry festival goers all weekend long. All food vendors serve a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan food. Specific dietary requirements have also been taken into account at every single food vendor.
The Ilosaarirock festival site boasts multiple bar areas for all of our over 18-year-old festival guests (the minimum legal drinking age in Finland is 18). Please be prepared to prove your age by presenting your ID! All bars are stocked with a wide selection of excellent beverages and drinks. Non-alcoholic options are also always available in all our bars.
In addition to ordering from and frequenting the various food vendors and bars inside our festival area, you are also allowed to bring your own food and non-alcoholic drinks inside the festival area. Empty re-usable water bottles are also allowed. There are plenty of water taps around the festival site where you can fill your bottle with fresh water. The tap water in the Joensuu region is tested and proven to be of excellent quality! Small juice boxes/cartons (with straws) are also allowed. Please note that you cannot bring glass bottles or bottles that contain or have contained alcohol in them inside the festival area.
Regular-sized packed lunches, such as sandwiches, fruit, candy, snacks etc. are allowed.
Toilets and Hand Washing Stations
Ilosaarirock has plenty of toilets and urinals located both inside and right outside the festival site to bring relief from full bladders. Don’t be a jackass – pee in the toilets, not in bushes or especially not on walls or in people’s gardens.
Each of the toilet areas have accessible toilets.
Ilosaarirock's own festival merchandise and fan merchandise of the bands and artists performing at the festival are available for purchase at Ilosaarirock Shop inside the festival area.
Ilosaarirock merchandise can also be bought in advance at shop.ilosaarirock.fi.
Seating and resting areas can be found throughout the festival area. The festival area also has plenty of grassy areas, where it's comfortable to sit and enjoy the atmosphere.
Smoking is prohibited in front of all stages and inside all performance tents. Separate designated smoking areas have been placed and marked within the area, which also provide ashtrays. Smoking restrictions also apply to e-cigarettes. Please consider those around you and refrain from smoking in large crowds.
Please be respectful of your fellow revellers – not everyone is a fan of cigarette smoke, even outdoors. Be respectful of your environment as well and put all cigarette butts into the ashtrays provided around the festival area.
Elevate your festival experience to new heights as Ilosaarirock’s VIP customer! As an Ilosaarirock VIP ticket holder, you get to enjoy the atmosphere of Ilosaarirock in a unique way. In addition to the festival's other programs and services, you gain access to fantastic VIP areas that provide everything you need to create a five-star festival experience without compromising on quality!
Three-day VIP tickets are available for purchase at our website here or straight through Lippu.fi and Tiketti’s points of sale. One-day VIP tickets will be available for purchase at a later date.
Ilosaarirock’s VIP tickets give you access to our comfortable VIP areas near the festival’s biggest stages, as well as other festival experience enhancing services. Please note that Ilosaarirock’s VIP tickets do not include any food or drinks.
Ilosaarirock VIP includes two separate VIP areas located in front of the festival's two biggest stages. Both areas feature tastefully decorated VIP spaces with high-quality services.
The VIP bars offer a wide range of drinks to suit every taste, including champagne, specialty beers, shots, and mocktails.
The Main Stage VIP is a two-story building located near the festival's largest performance stage, providing the best views of both the stage and the crowd in front of it. Inside the building, there is an exclusive bar offering a wide selection of delights, and the cozy courtyard offers numerous resting spots, and a restroom area with flush toilets, ensuring a pleasant festival stay. The Main Stage VIP building’s second floor is reserved for the sole use of our VIP Box pass holders.
At the Star VIP area, you can relax, enjoy drinks, dine well, and socialize with other VIP guests thanks to our excellent restaurant tent. Every day, the Star VIP restaurant tent offers a delicious buffet prepared by the finest restaurant in town, Ravintola Kerubi, exclusively for VIP guests. Please note that VIP food vouchers are sold separately.
100 % of the Ilosaarirock waste is being recycled or used for energy production. There are recycling bins for biodegradable waste, metal, glass, cardboard, plastic packaging, cans and bottles as well as hazardous waste. Additionally, there are over a hundred bins for combustible waste, and separate bins for cigarette butts.
Volunteers at the numerous recycling stations around the festival site instruct you in sorting your waste into the correct recycling bins!
The plates and cutlery used in Ilosaarirock are made of plastic-free cardboard or biodegradable material. They are sorted into energy waste. We stopped using biodegradable dishes, since the local biowaste processing sites are not able to process waste in the quantities produced by the festival. So, large quantities of food waste are sorted into biowaste and the plates and cutlery are sorted into energy waste.
Ilosaarirock is fully committed to ensuring that everyone is welcome and can attend our festival.
The Ilosaarirock festival site is located in a parkland area, where moving from place to place is mainly done on sandy pathways. The area is more or less flat, apart from the uphill leading up to the back of the festival area. There is plenty of signage to help you navigate around the festival site.
There is a paved car park near the festival site with a limited number of free-of-charge disabled parking spaces.
All performance stages at Ilosaarirock have elevated viewing platforms with accessible ramps for customers with reduced mobility.
All large toilet areas at Ilosaarirock have accessible toilets.
A disabled person, who has a right for a Personal Assistant (PA), can bring their PA to the festival free of charge. Both the PA’s and the person being assisted's wristbands can be collected from the information point located near the festival main gate upon arrival to Ilosaarirock. All wristbands are personal and will be attached to your wrist when exchanging them, so collecting a wristband on behalf of someone else is not possible. We recommend you bring a certificate or a form of supporting documentation of your need for a PA, for example an EU Disability Card.
If you have any questions, concerns or feedback regarding our accessibility, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@ilosaarirock.fi.
Equality has always been one of Ilosaarirock’s core values. Our visitors, volunteers, performers, employees and partners are all welcome at our festival as they are. We want every single person to feel safe and free to express themselves at Ilosaarirock. We do not allow or tolerate any kind of discrimination or harassment at Ilosaarirock.
We have a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment or abuse at Ilosaarirock. Our security guards and entire festival staff have been trained to recognise incidents of harassment and how to intervene. Additionally, a sexual harassment support person works on site and the police will keep the threshold for reporting crimes low.
We are all responsible for our own actions – even in the festival frenzy. Please respect the physical and mental integrity of each and every one of your fellow revellers and take others into consideration in the midst of having fun. If you witness or experience any inappropriate behaviour, alert or turn to any of the festival security guards or Ilosaarirock staff members.
Ilosaarirock’s principles for a safer space have been compiled in the festival’s Rock Etiquette, which you can find in the next section below.
Ilosaarirock belongs to each and every single one of us. There is no place for any kind of harassment or inappropriate behavior at the Ilosaarirock Festival. Let's ensure together that summer’s best weekend is truly the best for everyone.
Respect others
Respect the physical and mental integrity of every festival goer, as well as their autonomy. Remember that no always means no – respect the boundaries set by others. Treat other people's belongings and the surrounding nature with respect as well.
Don't assume
Don't make any assumptions about other people. Embrace everyone with an open, non-judgmental attitude and allow everyone the space to be their most authentic selves.
Ask for consent
Don't touch others without their permission – including any assistive devices. Ask for consent before entering someone else's physical space. Remember that consent must always be mutual.
Treat others with kindness
Don't criticize, mock, discriminate against, or embarrass anyone with your words or actions – not even as a joke. Treat everyone and everything around you with kindness, warmth and respect.
Stand up for others
We are all responsible for creating the atmosphere of summer’s best weekend. Remember that your actions also affect other festival goers. Intervene in inappropriate behavior and stand up for both yourself and others.
Listen and take responsibility
If you receive any feedback about your actions, receive and be open to it. Apologize if you have unintentionally or intentionally hurt other individuals or their property with your words or actions.
If you feel unsafe at the festival or encounter behavior that violates the Rock Etiquette, always turn to the nearest security guard or other festival staff. Let's create summer’s best weekend for everyone together!
Safety first! We want all of our customers to be able to concentrate on enjoying the festival with peace of mind. The Ilosaarirock organisers work closely with different authorities to ensure safety at the event, and the festival has indeed been praised for the smooth running and peacefulness of the event – also by the authorities.
We have hundreds of security guards both inside the festival site as well as the area just outside it, ensuring the safety of our customers. The local police and rescue services as well as first aid and support services are also all on duty on the festival grounds.
We also take part in developing even safer ways of organising events in cooperation with various national and international parties. We are constantly planning and mapping out safe alternatives and options for the event organising industry.
Everyone entering the festival grounds will have to go through a security check. The purpose of the checks carried out by the security guards is to prevent any prohibited items or substances being brought into the festival grounds.
Ilosaarirock has an First Aid station that is open all weekend long. In addition to the station, there are first aid teams on patrol around the festival site.
Dense Crowds and Crowd Surfing
There are a lot of people at Ilosaarirock. If you feel uncomfortable in tight spaces, it’s best to avoid dense crowds. The crowd pressure can build up very quickly, especially in the front-of-stage areas, and the situation can become very uncomfortable. If you are trapped in a crushing crowd, stay calm and don’t push, move with the crowd instead. If you need help, ask for it loudly.
Crowd surfing, the activity of lying flat while being passed over the heads of the audience (i.e. surfing) is banned. The purpose of this is to avoid and prevent dangerous situations in a large crowd. Sitting on someone’s shoulders is also not allowed.
The Ilosaarirock Rento Stage is on a beach, where you can cool off in the water during the day. However, swimming under the influence/while intoxicated is not safe. The swimming area perimeter is marked with buoys on the water. For the sake of your own safety, please only swim in the designated swimming area.
All ages are welcome at Ilosaarirock. We recommend that children under the age of 12 be accompanied by an adult.
Please keep in mind to enjoy the festival on the kids’ terms. Being in the throngs of festival goers as the night is drawing in is not the right place for children. Please make sure the children have a substance-free and safe festival experience.
Bringing animals into Ilosaarirock is not allowed. This also applies to assistance dogs.
The recommended sound-level exposure values might be exceeded on the festival grounds. Protect your hearing by using earplugs or noise-reduction ear muffs.
The festival and camping sites are surrounded by temporary fencing. Leave the fences be, as they have been put there to ensure the safety of our festival goers and of the nearby residents. Anyone caught breaking a fence must compensate for the damage caused.
Using various video and camera equipment is allowed at the festival. SLR and DSLR cameras, GoPros and other action cameras, tablets etc. are allowed, but please leave any big flashes or lights at home. Selfie sticks are also allowed. Drones/UAV’s, however, are not allowed for safety reasons.
Please remember to respect the privacy of your fellow festival goers – so don’t post pictures of other people online without asking for their permission first. The security guards also have the right to ban photography and filming, for example at a performer’s request during their gig.
