Sonja Saarinen
Young people are the future of the Tango Market in Seinäjoki, writes Sonja Saarinen, editor of Iltalehti.
The Tango Market has renewed its brand over the years. Henri Kärkkäinen
This year, the Tango Market in Seinäjoki was allowed to enter Tangokatu on Thursday. The Tango Market Organization tells Iltalehti that about 2,000 young people arrived on the site.
This was a very good solution for the event. We interviewed the young people who came to the scene and many of them said they had never been to the Tango Market before, even though they were from Seinäjoki. The reason is probably that tango or Iskelmä is not the number one genre for most of the youth. However, some young people stated that there was nothing wrong with tango music and they even consider going to stage dances this summer.
Many other festivals give free tickets to different age groups. For example Ruisrock and Province offer free tickets for one day for those over 70 years of age.
However, next year, it would be worthwhile for the Tango Market to make the most out of the youth and offer them several days of tickets. If the capacities were allowed, the young people could also be allowed to watch the Tango Market Song Contest, which is certainly one of the biggest and most anticipated event of the Tango Week. Now I justify why.
For years, we have rumored and talked about the decline in the tango market and stage dance culture. Especially people who are not actively visiting dance stages or tango and hit music-focused events threaten that events in this genre will no longer keep their surface for many years, let alone decades. At the same time, however, we have young people who are moving around dance dance bands, such as the Komat, who is gaining popularity at gigs and in social media.
Young people will be those who keep this genre and such music events alive. We are soon in a situation where the Z generations are middle-aged. If they do not get to know events like the tango market or hear tango music anywhere, the event has no visitors.
Of course, giving several days of tickets to thousands of people requires great investments from an organization organizing a tango market. But is it still time to think beyond years, not just this moment?
And if you are to believe on Thursday, yes the youth will also get money and have fun on Tangokatu, just like older visitors.