Sami Parkkinen & Jaakko Kilpiäinen:
Ulapalla (Finland, 2006)
Production: Raja Production
55 min - DVD. Finnish.
World premiere!
All aboard!
It was not simple to organise the Tuuliajolla 2006 tour. First we had to get the right to use the name that originally belonged to another Eastern Finnish boat-based rock'n'roll tour in 1981. Then we had to arrange the rest of the tour. The fact that instead of a tour bus we had a tour steam boat did not exactly make things simpler. But it was all worth it, and even better.
When our merry group of musicians met in Savonlinna in the Wednesday of the tour week, there was more excitement and expectation in the air than is customary among such professional travellers. But we felt at home on board and in each other's company so quickly and naturally that hardly a day had passed when living onboard had became the only living circumstances that we could remember.
The participants of the tour were the people, the nature, the boat, the tour arrangements and, the most important of all, the concerts. The flow of things was not always easy and the feelings onboard were, to put it mildly, varied. After the Lappeenranta fiasco, when the supply of electricity let down both the performers and the audience big time, our team could still find new strength to start again. Our experience and professionality combined with team spirit and the attitude that was casual to the point of carelessness were, a bit paradoxically, just the right formula for going on.
No one knows what Tuuliajolla 2006 tour had been without the electricity problems, but for the makers of this documentary it certainly offered a whole new dimension in portraying our community of strong personalities. The film belongs to the category of cinéma vérité, depicting the events during the trip as they were by pursuing a series of main themes. The narration takes a diary-like, multi-level chronological format.
I know it's a cliché, but I have to say that the trip was great and we wish you had been there too. In fact, by watching this film you can still be there.
Rysky Riiheläinen
Cruise Host
Tuuliajolla 2006 Tour
