Pelimannitalo

Konstantie 8 Kaustinen

The Kaustinen Pelimannitalo, originally called Aapintupa, was built around 1800 in the village of Pulkkinen in Veteli. The house went uninhabited in the 1940s, and it was moved to Kaustinen in stages. There it has served as a venue for folk music performances and meetings as well as provided premises for the Folk Music Institute. President Kekkonen inaugurated the building in the summer of 1974.

The layout of the Pelimannitalo represents a special type of Ostrobothnian peasant house called ‘sivukamaritupa’. These kinds of houses were built in the southern parishes of Central Ostrobothnia as farmhouse main buildings from the mid-1700s to the 1850s. In them, the rooms were built on both sides of a large kitchen-living room area, not at both ends of the house. The house is furnished in an old rustic style, and the kitchen-living rooms feature traditional arched open fireplaces. Today the Pelimannitalo is in private ownership, and it is hired out for different events and family occasions.

For folk music enthusiasts, the Pelimannitalo is the legendary heart of the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival: countless memorable moments have been experienced in its intimate atmosphere since the times of Konsta Jylhä ja Purppuripelimannit. Concerts are organised throughout the year, and the performers include, for instance, the professional folk music ensemble Tallari and various artists of the Kaustinen Chamber Music Week.

From the front stairs of the Pelimannitalo, you can see the festival park dominated by an amphitheatre-shaped festival arena, built in 1985, with its auditorium for about 3,000 people. During the festival, the arena is covered by an open-sided marquee with a 24-metre-high central pole, designed by the architect Roy Mänttäri. This yellow-striped, umbrella-formed marquee has become the symbol of the Kaustinen festival. It has received the nickname “Ville’s beanie” after an important figure in the Folk Music Festival, Viljo S. Määttälä (1923–2016).

Just down the slope in front of the Pelimannitalo stairs and to the left, you can also see a monument dedicated to folk music (Kansanmusiikkimonumentti). The monument, by Armas Maasalo, was unveiled in 1982. Its base features the profiles of important music influencers and composers from Kaustinen.

Stories

The centuries old pine logs of Aapintupa were felled in the forests of Perho. The original intention was to float the logs along the Perhonjoki river to Kokkola and use them for building a church there. This plan was ultimately never realised. When the spring flood ran dry, the logs got stuck in the river at the village of Pulkkinen in Veteli. Farmer Matti Pulkkinen bought the logs at a low price and used them to build a 23-metre-long and 12-metre-wide peasant house, which the ethnologist Kustaa Vilkuna has called “peasant’s log castle”. (http://www.arviiti.fi/tarinaa-pelimannitalosta)

An age-old ghost called Vaatermoukka is said to live in the Pelimannitalo after having moved from Veteli to Kaustinen together with the logs of the house (Marjatta Pulkkinen 1995).

The inauguration of the Pelimannitalo in June 1974 was planned as a media event, which would impressively culminate with President Kekkonen opening the house door with a nearly half-a-metre-long iron key specifically made for the purpose. However, the hosts and the media had forgotten how athletic the president was. After the lengthy ceremonies held on the festival field, Kekkonen strode up the Pelimannitalo slope and opened the door with the key with such speed that neither the hosts nor the reporters could follow him, and no one is known to have got a proper photo of this carefully planned moment.

Photos

Pelimannitalo

Pelimannitalo

Santeri’s cabinet

Folk music ensemble Tallari with J-P Piirainen at the Kaustinen Pelimannitalo in 2018 (Folk Music Institute/Lauri Oino)

Monument dedicated to folk music

Map