Kokkola has a high-quality and diverse range of music, visual, spoken and performing arts. You can find events in the city of Kokkola’s event calendar. Tickets for most evens can be bought at Luckan (Kokkola City Library, Isokatu 3).
Music
At the end of 2024, the renewed Music Center Snellman (Vingenkatu 18) was completed. Its three stages offer spaces for different types of music, but naturally even others. The Snellman Hall at the Music Center Snellman is home to the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, which is one of the best-known chamber orchestras in Finland and also plays extensively abroad.
The Music Department of the Centria University of Applied Sciences and the Central Ostrobothnia Conservatory (website in Finnish) arrange a variety of concert activities, mainly at the premises of the conservatory (Pitkänsillankatu 16), but partly as well in the Fordell Hall at Music Center Snellman.
Other notable music venues in Kokkola include Kulttuurikorjaamo (Katariinankatu 16), which organizes distinctive and warm-hearted live events especially for smaller audiences, and Kahvila Saha, the cultural café in the Yxpila district. Bigger music events in Kokkola are ex. the Ullava Visual Arts and Music Week, the Lohtaja Church Music Festival (website in Finnish) and the Kokkola Winter Accordion Festival.
Interartistic events
Ykspihlajan kulttuuriviikko (in Finnsih) is an annual event that already has got its stamp as a cult classic. The event is held completely in the Ykspihlaja district. A recently emerged city festival is Kokkolan Kulttuuribasaari, that brings together different art forms in several different locations in Kokkola city center. So far, the event is a one-day event.
Visual arts and exhibitions
The art exhibitions of the K.H. Renlund Museum on display at the elegant Roos House (Pitkänsillankatu 39) are based on the bequest of commercial counsellor Karl Herman Renlund. The collection consists of around 50 pieces from the turn of the 19th century, the Golden Age of Finnish art. The Museum has temporary exhibitions in its exhibition gallery (Pitkänsillankatu 26–28).
Veikko Vionoja’s summer home is located in Ullava, approximately 60 kilometres from the Kokkola city centre (Haapalantie 121, Yli-Ullava). Taide-Vionoja (website in Finnish), maintained by the Vionoja Foundation, is open in the summer, when the master’s works are on view in authentic Vionoja surroundings.
Temporary exhibitions are also regularly displayed in the lobby of the Kokkola city hall (Kauppatori 5), in the city library (Isokatu 3) and in the libraries of Kälviä, Lohtaja and Ullava. For more information, check the Kokkola event calendar.
Handicrafts
The Central Ostrobothnia arts and crafts association TAITO offers information and training services, handles arts, crafts and materials and organises development projects, exhibitions and events to promote handicrafts. In addition to their premise (Kansakoulunkatu 1), handicrafts training is also provided by the Kokkola Region College.
Traditional culture
Kokkola is one of the country’s oldest cities, which has preserved its distinctive cityscape for centuries. You can find out more about the affiliated parishes and the city’s history and traditions under the link Other museum destinations.
The local heritage museums are mainly open during the summer season. The museums are found on the Kaarlela church hill, in Öja in Knivsund, on the church hill in Lohtaja, in Ohtakari in Lohtaja, and in the Kälviä village. Moreover, the Toivonen Animal Park and Peasant Museum in Kälviä is also open in the summertime.
Performing arts
The Kokkola Municipal Theatre (in Finnish), located in the former guardhouse Vartiolinna (Torikatu 48), is rich in atmosphere. You can find the programme on the theatre’s website.
There are two active amateur theatres with a regular programme in Kokkola and the two are both over a hundred years old. Karleby Ungdomsförening (KUF), as in the Kokkola Swedish youth club (website in Swedish), founded in 1894, maintains a Swedish-language amateur theatre at Jungsborg (Poikkikatu 8). Ykspihlajan Työväen Näyttämö (YTN), as in Ykspihlaja workers’ theatre (website in Finnish), was founded in 1907. Its home stage is at the Ykspihlaja headquarters (Satamakatu 40). The amateur theatres both offer youth groups and courses for those interested in amateur theatre.
Förutom de två amatörteatrarna finns det även andra amatörteatergrupper vilka ordnar föreställningar och erbjuder kommuninvånare möjligheten att delta i teatergrupper. Amatörteatergrupper är bl.a. Kokkolan Iltanäyttelijät ry, Teatteri Pystymehtä i Ullava, Iloinen Kyläteatteri och Lochteå amatörteaterförening Gitta.
The Kokkola Winter Dance (the website is in Finnish/Swedish) is a contemporary dance event of national importance, arranged every year in February. You can also enjoy dance in Kokkola at the performances of the Ballet School of the Conservatory and the Performing Art School of Kokkola (the website is in Finnish).
Film
Kokkola has one cinema, Bio Rex, with two different scenes. Both scenes are equipped with digital and 3D technology. There is also a filmfestival that is bein organized, Kokkola Film Fest (Kokkolan kinojuhlat).