Annikki Poetry Festival

Annikki Poetry Festival (est. 2003) is one of Finland’s most international and significant poetry events and original cultural festivals. It has also spawned Annikki OFF, a three-day series of events around the city. We have invited high profile international poetry performers, for example John Cooper Clarke (UK) and Mutabaruka (JAM). Annikki Poetry Festival is organised by volunteers every two years.

The Annikki Poetry Festival will be held on 6 June 2026 from 11 am to 10 pm in the courtyard of the Annikki Wooden Quarter in Tampere, Finland. The festival will once again feature prominent international performers, a fine selection of Finnish poets as well as music, prose writers, children’s programme and visual arts.

The venue of the Annikki Poetry Festival is the 115-year-old Annikki Wooden Quarter in the centre of Tampere city, which has served as a very special, warm and welcoming milieu for poets and audience to meet and mingle.

In 2003, the residents of Annikki Wooden Quarter in Tampere founded a poetry event in their yard. Since then, Annikki Poetry Festival has developed into one of Finland’s most significant poetry events and original cultural festivals. It has also spawned Annikki OFF, a three-day series of events around the city.