The Incredible, Edible Flow Festival in Helsinki, Finland

Until you hear otherwise from me, the Flow Festival in Helsinki is the best music festival I’ve ever been to. Period.

From its location at the Suvilahti–a shuttered energy plant in central Helsinki, whose steel-enforced concrete buildings and skeletal remains are juxtaposed with circus big tops and fairy lights–to the festival’s overall design which, excuse the pun, flowed with its surroundings–beer gardens were nestled into small grassy coves with ping pong tables tucked in between buildings, for example–the Flow Festival felt more like a neighborhood street party than a rock festival. I see the festival as a celebration of independence, where hipsters mingle with 40-somethings, and angst teens in tight jeans chain smoke reds and scoff at the whole damn scene. Everyone is brought together, however, by one underlying force: there’s no better place to be on a warm August night in Helsinki.

One of the staples of Flow is that the line up is always diverse. When the lights flickered off Sunday night, more than 120 acts had taken the stage over the three days. As usual the soundtrack bended genres, featuring everything from R&B superstar Janelle Monae to an array of local Finnish bands, and headliners, such as Skrillex, the National, and Outkast, whose performance (as you can see below) was out of this world.

Going into Flow, I expected the music to be good, but what I didn’t expect was the food to be a headliner too. The organizers cherry pick their favorite gourmet food trucks and restaurants from around the city, and have them setup shop at the festival.

Speaking with Forbes earlier this year, Flow’s co-founder Tuomas Kallio explained that even from the very first festival back in 2004, food played an important part in festivals. “Food is always a crucial factor of a total experience” Kallio said, adding that their first gourmet vendor was Japanese restaurant Kabuki, which was a huge shift from other festivals in the country, who served staples like Finnish sausages (makkara) and a Nordic hash mixture known as ‘pyttipannu.’ Since then, the Helsinki food scene has exploded, giving organizers more options than ever when it comes to bringing local, gourmet food to festival goers.

“Food is always a crucial factor of a total experience,” Kallio said.

With only one day at Flow, we did our best to eat our way through as many of the vendors as we could in the name of research. I think we scratched the surface, but, honestly, we hardly made a dent. The reality is there’s just a whole lot of good food at Flow, and to sample it all you really need to hit the festival on day one and eat your way through day three. Read on to find out our favorite plates from Flow.

Tokyo Girl by New York Ninja

Since launching in 2010, Chef Robert McCormick’s New York Ninja has become a major player in Helsinki’s burgeoning food scene. The catering company, which specializes in creative food design, has two kitchens in Helsinki–Sandro and Shanghai Cowboy–and  also hosts experimental pop-up kitchens, like Tokyo Girl, which made a delicious appearance at the Flow Festival. Tokyo Girl was our first stop at Flow, and got the afternoon off to a good start. Specializing in Asian street food,  Tokyo Girl’s stand featuring braised baby octopus skewer with cold noodle salad, Vietnamese tofu sandwich, Korean bbq ribs, and the dish we tried: a Burmese noodle salad (12 euro) with fantan and tofu (organic smoked salmon was also available).

Fafa’s

Falafel gyros are one of our favorite cheap street options when we’re in Europe.  So, when we came across Fafa’s, which claims to have the best Falafel in Finland, it was challenge on. Since I have only seen a small portion of Finland, I honestly can’t say if there the country’s best, but what I can tell you is that our falafel pitta (8 euro) was delicious and everything on it, from the organic hummus, vegetables and tzatzkie, was fresh. Fafa’s has three locations in Helsinki, so you’ll  never be too far from a falafel if you should get a craving, just keep in mind that its closed on Sunday.

Tasty Dogs

I couldn’t find any information online about Tasty Dog, but I do believe it is a food truck in Helsinki. At Flow, we tried the veggie dog (6 euro) topped with aubergine apricot, ras el hanout (a Moroccan spice mix), cucumber mint yogurt, and crispy onions. It was the best veggie hot dog I’ve ever had, and easy to recommend if you happen to come across one in the city.

Raw Spot

Raw Spot claims to have the “Best raw cake you’ve ever had,” and I’ve got to say, their chocolate raw cake (5 euro) is pretty excellent. I’m by no means a connoisseur in raw cake, but the Raw Spot sets the bar really high; it’s probably good, though, that it’s so far away, as I could see myself becoming addicted to it pretty easily. The Raw Spot’s products are made from dark sugars and spelt flours with natural sweeteners, like dates, raisins, stevia, and honey. I couldn’t find an exact location for Raw Spot in Helsinki, so I’m not where you can buy its products in the city. If anyone knows, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

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Next year’s Flow Festivals has already been announced, and will take place August 14-16. If you’re going to be in Helsinki during those dates, I can’t recommend Flow enough. It’s the crown jewel of Helsinki’s festivals for a reason–Flow embodies everything that makes Helsinki so great.

Want to discover more unique festivals? Follow our friends and fellow travelers as they share their journeys from this summer and fall with Must Love Festivals and through the #MustLoveFestivals on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Disclosure: Visit Finland is a Must Love Festival Partner, and provided our accommodation and transportation while we were in the region to cover the Mänttä Art and Music Festival. As always, though, our thoughts and opinions are entirely our own.