The local Ice Hockey World Champions

Those who are ice hockey fans might remember that Finland won the world championship this year. When the team arrived to Finland, there was a party at the town square in Helsinki (the capital). Now the local members of the national team arrived to Oulu and there was a party at the market square. Some say 20 000 people were there to listen music and scream at the players on the stage. And to listen politicians say how great everything is.

I was at the city library at about 1700hrs (5pm) when I heard the organizers doing sound checks. Of course, I got curious and went to see what was going on. Empty square, a stage with some people setting up the gear and a few hudred teenage girls waiting for the sport stars. The party was supposed to start at 7pm. Meh, I'm not a sport star so I went home to have dinner. After dinner I read some, and at about 7pm I went to see if the party was worth my time.

The stage is back there somewhere.

This photo was taken standing on the street.  Can't see anything. The street was blocked by people standing there and walking around. And the guy on the van in the right was watching the show, too. He couldn't get anywhere.

This is near the stage.

There were too many people so I couldn't see at the stage at all. Maybe I should've skipped dinner and stayed there all evening so I could have seen something.

Here's several hundred, maybe thousands of bikes parked in front of the Theater. In two or three rows. With racks for about five bikes. I parked my bike there too, and had a little trouble finding my bike, but I found it. On the other side of the road, the bike parking in front of the library was also overflowing. I didn't go to the other side of the crowd to see if there was hundreds of bikes parked there too, but most likely there was.

The police had warned that the city center was going to be full of people and parking would be full. Driving was discouraged, and alternative methods were recommended. I think the car traffic was a little lighter than normally, but there were a lot of people walking and cycling.