Soivat Selkoset and Kuusamo’s Travel and Cultural Centre Karhuntassu will jointly present Kuusamo’s Salpa Line in Words, Music, and Images. The performances will take place on Friday, February 13, and Friday, March 6, 2026, at 18:00 at the Kuusamo Travel and Cultural Centre Karhuntassu (Torangintaival 2, 93600 Kuusamo).
The History of the Salpa Line in Kuusamo Comes to Life in Words, Music, and Images
“Kuusamo’s Salpa Line in Words, Music, and Images” – February 13 & March 6, 2026
Published 9 Feb, 2026
Kuusamo’s Salpa Line in Words, Music, and Images recounts the eventful history of the Kuusamo segment of the Salpa Line through artistic expression. The work transports listeners decades back in time to the everyday life of the war years, capturing its ordinariness and the memories that have survived among the people to this day. Scriptwriter Laura Piilonen seeks to bring back to life the partially forgotten oral history collected about the construction of the Salpa Line and Kuusamo’s wartime past. The Kuusamo Salpa Line is a valuable military historical site whose origins reach back to the 1920s and especially to the later years when the Salpa Line served as part of Finland’s national defense during the Winter and Continuation Wars. The area is accessible from the village of Lahtela via a hiking trail open during the snow-free season, along which visitors can see wartime relics such as trenches, battle trenches, and demolished concrete bunkers.
Kuusamo’s Salpa Line in Words, Music, and Images is a dramatized performance depicting wartime everyday life from the perspective of ordinary people. The stories of the past are based on oral accounts and literature compiled by artist Laura Piilonen. Her earlier work, “Father, I Came to Be a Log-Floater!”, closely accompanies this new piece. Piilonen has sought to create a new, unique, and moving form of performance in which she is joined by bass-baritone singer Lauri Turpeinen. Piilonen promises that the performance with Turpeinen will take the audience even deeper into the touching stories that deserve to be told.'
Kuusamo’s Salpa Line in Words, Music, and Images February 13 & March 6 at 6 PM
Kuusamo Travel and Cultural Centre Karhuntassu, Torangintaival 2, 93600 Kuusamo
- Tickets at the door: Adults €25, seniors and students €20
- Advance tickets: Adults €20, seniors and students €18
Tickets can also be purchased from the Soivat Selkoset online store (incl. €0.50 service fee) or at the Kuusamo Travel and Cultural Centre Karhuntassu.