Koskipuisto Pop-up Karaoke Draws Nearly 150 Singers

Nearly 150 people have taken the microphone at Koskipuisto during roughly 100 free street-karaoke sessions run by Swedish-born Daniel Kourie, 38. He puts on the unpaid pop-up events in Tampere city centre to encourage passersby to perform despite their nerves.

Kourie moved from Sweden to Viiala a few years ago to join his Finnish wife and works as a school assistant at the Swedish co-educational school in Tampere. A musician since age 15, he began street karaoke in Sweden about three years ago. He brought the idea to Koskipuisto last summer, regularly setting up next to the restaurant Puisto and inviting people to sing while he accompanies them on guitar.

Participants range from children to the elderly. Kourie recalls a 75-year-old woman who had sung all her life but never in front of others, and a night when batteries ran out and the group kept going a cappella. He says the sessions help people push past shyness and support mental wellbeing, likening shared music to communal food sharing in Middle Eastern cultures. Giving people a space to feel seen has also given his own life purpose.

The pop-up sessions join Tampere's summer of free outdoor music alongside the free Finlayson concert series and the multicultural festival in Laikunlava and Library Park. Those figures were reported by local paper Tamperelainen.