Finland stage world’s first heavy metal knitting championship

By Staff on Sunday, July 14, 2019

Finland has hosted its first ever ‘Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship’.

Held in the small town of Joensuu the spectacle involves knitters dancing to heavy metal.

Stage names for the festival included the likes of Woolfumes, Bunny Bandit and 9” Needles.

According to organisers; “Finland is the promised land of heavy metal music. There are 50 heavy metal bands per 100 000 Finnish citizens, which is astonishingly many and actually more than anywhere else in the whole world.”

The number of needlework enthusiasts is equally high, as according to even the most modest estimates there are hundreds of thousands of people in Finland who are immersed various kinds of needlework crafts, knitting included.

“We have such dark and long winters,” said event co-founder Mari Karjalainen, speaking to The Washington Post. “This really gives us lots of time to plan for our short summers and come up with silly ideas.”