Update: 2023 Skabmagovat Film Festival will take place in January 2023 DTA. This is the perfect time to celebrate the indigenous people of the world. It could even be called a BIPOC film festival.
Skabmagovat Sami Film Festival
For this Sami film festival, you’ll have to travel about 5 hours north of the Arctic circle, and Santa’s home in Rovaniemi, Finland. Here you will find the small town of Inari in Finnish Lapland. When I say small I mean a one reindeer town!
Inari sits on the edge of Inari Lake, which becomes a vast solid surface of the ice in the winter. There is one main street, two hotels, one B&B, a supermarket that doubles for the post office, a tourist info office that doubles for the liquor store, and a very nice museum. The population is approximately 800, and if you have just come from cosmopolitan Helsinki you will appreciate the down to earth friendly residents, who represent the real Finland.
Source: Manfred Werner – Tsui
What to Do in Inari?
For nature lovers Inari is heaven. For those seeking unusual experiences and challenges, there is husky dog sledding, snowmobiles, reindeer safaris, and all forms of ski. The indigenous people of this area are the Sami, and their Parliament meets in Inari.
The Sami People
The Sami people were once nomadic and they can be found in Northern Europe across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Their traditional professions revolve around reindeer herding, felt making, hunting, and now tourism.
Indigenous People Film Festival
In the middle of winter groups of indigenous people from around the world gather in the small town of Inari for the International indigenous peoples’ Film Festival. An open-air amphitheater is built from ice and under the stars, and sometimes even the Northern Lights. The villagers and their guests sit on reindeer skins and cuddle up to watch films made by and about indigenous people around the world. The temperatures in the theatre can reach -20°C, but the people are so warm you don’t feel it! BIPOC filmmakers and participants come from as far away as the Philippines, Japan, Canada and Africa.
Afterparty at the Indigenous Film Festival
The really unique experience comes when the Sami film festival is over and the town sets out to “party” in one of the two hotels. There are local Sami performers, as well as the indigenous guests who play their unique music. Some of the Sami turn up in their traditional costume. The locals are very friendly and inclusive of guests, and the atmosphere is reminiscent of an old Irish country pub – but in Lapland! This is where you get a sense of the real Finnish character.
So if you want to feel in the middle of nowhere, and to really know the Finns, try Inari.
Photo by Vincent Guth on Unsplash
BIPOC Film Festival Practical Details:
Where: Inari, Finnish Lapland.
To get there: You can take a bus from Rovaniemi (5 hours) or anywhere else in Finland. Or fly to Ivalo, on SAS or Finnair, and from there take a 20-minute bus ride.
When: Although many travelers go to Lapland in the warmer seasons, I really don’t get the point. For your first trip go in winter, to see what is unique about the place, snow, snow, and more snow. For the Skabmagovat Film Festivalgo between January 28th – February 2nd.
Where to stay: I would say there is more action in the Inari Hotel, which has a more active pub/restaurant and is in the “center” of town. But I have stayed at Kultahoviwhere we had a sauna in our bathroom and patio facing the forest. There are also small cottages and camping around the lake.
היי, אני מתכננת טיולים וסוכנת נסיעות. אשמח לעזור לך בכל שאלות קשור לניסיעות שיש לך
I'm a travel writer and travel agent hoping to help you plan your next adventure.
I think this is a real great blog article.Much thanks again. Want more.