Gold Coast Finnish Festival turned out to be best ever event once again.
The opening of the Finnish Festival on Good Friday attracted around 500 people from around Australia and as far as from Perth. The sporting events on Saturday and Sunday were popular as well; however they did not reach similar crowds. The weather stayed sunny and dry for the benefit to the organizers and the whole event went smoothly with plenty of food and drink available for everyone.
Ambassador of Finland, Maija Lähteenmäki, the Patron of the Festival encouraged in her speech the Finns in Australia to keep the Finnish language and the culture alive and move forward with times as Finland has done. The Finnish Festival organizes need new ideas and the change of concept to be able to survive.
Golf was played on Friday and Sunday on Emerald Lakes Golf Club. Sunshine Coast Finnish Social Club had 17 players. Our team managed to crab 9 medals, winning the men’s team gold and the silver in ladies team game. Other gold medal winners were Raimo Roppola C grade, Aila Roppola ladies B grade. Silver medals: Assi Puolakka A grade, Elmi Parviainen ladies B grade, Risto Koski straight game. Bronze medals: Risto Koski A grade, Assi Puolakka straight game.
Our men’s Mölkky team was unbeatable as well and won all the medals: gold Assi Puolakka, silver Pepe Hentunen and bronze Raimo Roppola. Our lady Mölkky players were not as successful, Aila Roppola was fourth. We thank our sports team for very good results.
The next Finnish Festival 2011 will be held in Brisbane and 2012 in Melbourne. We need more competitors; it is a good time to start training now. There are plenty of choices from running and walking to table tennis, mölkky and golf and the list goes on. Children’s grades are available as well including a drawing competition.
Cultural competitions consist of singing, instrument playing, poetry, humour and so on.
We like to thank Gold Coast Finnish Sports Club for organizing an excellent festival, well done!
All the best to everybody
Regards Elli
