Meripäivät Arena

Meripäivät Arena is a set of concerts organized during Kotka Maritime Festival (Meripäivät). The concerts will be organized on the Market Square in Kotka from Thursday to Saturday, July 27-29, 2023. Artists such as Scandinavian Music Group, Von Hertzen Brothers, Yona, Yeboyah, Elastinen and Olavi Uusivirta will be performing on Meripäivät Arena. The schedule will be released later on.

“It’s great that Satama Areena is part of Kotka’s most important event. We get to create experiences for both locals and tourists, and also contribute to the development of the event,” says Satama Areena’s CEO Minna Nyman.

The arena stage will not be empty on Wednesday either. The traditional Meripäivät opening ceremony and a youth concert, organized through participatory budgeting, will be held on the stage. The performer for the youth concert will be announced soon. Tiina Salonen, the event manager for Meripäivät, emphasizes the importance of having a local organizer for Meripäivät Arena.

“Meripäivät is a significant event for the region, bringing thousands of visitors to Kotka from all over Finland each year. It’s important for us to highlight localness, and we’re pleased that we now have a local organizer for the concert,” says Tiina Salonen, the event manager for Meripäivät.

Meripäivät will be held in the city center of Kotka from Wednesday to Saturday, July 26-29, as in the previous year. The event area will be largely the same as in the summer of 2022. Ruotsinsalmenkatu will once again serve as the festival street, summer restaurants will be located on Lehmuskuja, Kotka-lava will be set up in the courtyard of the city theater, and Tivoli Seiterä will be in Sapokka. Children’s Maritime Festival will be held at community house Messi. The opening parade will also follow the same route as last year, along Kymenlaaksonkatu, ending at the intersection of Papinkatu and Itäkatu. The opening ceremony will be held on the Meripäivät Arena stage immediately after the parade, as usual.

“Last year’s experiences were good, and we received positive feedback from visitors about the event area. It was a natural choice to continue in the same location, especially since the Kantasatama is still out of use,” says Tiina Salonen.

In a visitor survey conducted after Meripäivät last year, over 70 percent of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with the event area. According to the survey, overall satisfaction with the event grew slightly from 2019 to nearly 80 percent, and the event’s atmosphere received praise once again. The City of Kotka will conduct a comprehensive study of Meripäivät in the beginning of the year to determine the future direction of the event. The results will be announced during 2023.

Tickets are available at Lippu.fi.