Drifts is a nomadic art platform that organizes transcultural art festivals annually in various regions of Helsinki, Finland. The Drifts Festival aims to contribute to cultural plurality by engaging with diverse neighborhoods and communities. It fosters a fluid space that transcends cultural, geographical, and disciplinary boundaries, seeking dynamic social engagements and critical dialogues through performative, audiovisual, and discursive practices.
Founded in Helsinki in 2021, Drifts is a non-profit cultural platform. Its festivals and projects create temporary social spheres where diverse backgrounds gather to share critical knowledge and promote experimental arts. Each year, the festival’s curatorial themes reflect Drifts' values, political agency, and contemporary urgent questions. The activities are built through multidisciplinary, site-specific approaches in collaboration with grassroots organizations, institutions, and transnational practitioners. Drifts encourages inclusivity and accessibility, maintaining its commitment to making all events free for everyone.
Drifting from one place to another is a critical method of urban geography, acting as a temporary intervention in the capitalized city landscape. The Drifts Festival, as a nomadic platform, brings attention to diverse regions, mediates interactions between local residents and outsiders, and challenges the centralized regional division of the city. This approach stimulates social engagement and aims to broaden the public’s fixed everyday life through encounters with different environments and cultures, contributing to changing public awareness of historically fixed geographical areas.
From 2025 to 2027, Drifts Festival is in a collaboration partnership with the Saastamoinen Foundation. In 2025, Drifts Festival is realized in collaboration with Nordic Culture Point, Malmitalo, SIC, Finnish Institute UK & Ireland, Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, Finnland-Institut, Goethe-Institut Finnland, AV-ARKKI, Up Node, North European Resonance and Dissonance Society, Mad House Helsinki With the support of: City of Helsinki, Nordic Culture Fund, IHME Helsinki and 1664.
Drifts ry is a registered cultural association. The registration number is 3231957-7.
Board member
Soko Hwang - Chairperson
Ahmed Al-Nawas - Vice-chair
Marianne Savallampi - Treasurer
Eero Yli-Vakkuri - Secretary