MARITIME FESTIVAL

Kotka Maritime Festival is the biggest summer festival in Finland. Annually more than 100 000 people visit Kotka during the festival weekend. For the first time this festival was arranged in 1962. This year Kotka Maritime Festival will be arranged from 27 th to 30 th of July. 
The programme of the Festival is very versatile. You can become acquainted with many kind of ships and boats. You can watch sailing competitions and motor boat races. You can make sightseeing tours in the beautiful archipelago. There are very many concerts during the Maritime Festival, from sea songs to jazz and all possible in- between! The main attraction of the light music programme next summer will be - as always - the entertainment concert of Juha Vainio's music. Juha Vainio (1937- 1990) was the most famous songwriter, who was born in Kotka. Very interesting will also be the concert of the popular band called J. Karjalainen Electric Sauna. For twenty years one of the main programmes has been the International Seasong Festival and we have had many visitors from abroad taking part in the competition with good success.
Kotka is the first UNICEF town in Finland and one of the reasons for this honourable task is Children's Maritime Festival. There you and your children can spend wonderful time. There are many possibilities to listen to the music, fairy tales, plays... One of the most important thing is that children can make themselves many things: paper, wooden toys, paintings... Children can play themselves, sing, recite poems, or tell fairy tales, etc. 
Of course there are also many restaurants, pubs and other interesting places to spend the time with your friends. So we wish you a warm welcome to Kotka to live with us an exiting and interesting weekend at the end of July in 2000! 

MUD CURES!

The history of Haapsalu as a seaside resort began just about two centuries ago when the curative effect of local mud was discovered. The first mud cure resort was founded by Carl Abraham Hunnius in 1825. The news of curative mud reached the aristocracy of St. Petersburg and by

the beginning of 20 th century Haapsalu became an internationally recognised and popular summer resort. Mud cure resorts are nowadays still the most valuable tourist attraction in Haapsalu where people from all over the world can get the medical treatment. Over the past years three new mud cure resorts have been founded: Laine sanatorium (1994), health and holiday centres Fra Mare and Bergfeldt (1997). The exciting history of Haapsalu dates back to 13th century. Despite the small size, one can find here fine examples of different building styles from the 7th c. There is a possibility to develop niche tourism - the wooden architecture could interest wood renovators. The oldest building in town - the episcopal castle with the biggest one- naval Dome Church in the Baltics - is in active use even 

today - a great place for concerts and events of many kind. Cultural life becomes especially active in festival Violin Plays as well as Piotr Tchaikovsky music festival are for those who appreciate classic music. For blues lovers there is August Blues and the international amateur theatre festival Interteaterfest does the theatre bit. 
The international fireworks festival FireNight that has been held for the last couple of years has proved to bring in huge number of public. Haapsalu's trade mark - the White Lady Days - can be taken as a synthesis of all the summer events. 
This year it was decided to open a land of Ilon Wikland (Wiklandia) - a recreation centre for children. This world famous book illustrator has been involved with Haapsalu throughout her childhood. 
Traditional sports in Haapsalu are fencing and ice- boat sailing. The latter has got potential to bring some attention in winter which tends to be the less active and sleepy one. A good contribution into development of sport tourism has been the reconstruction of sports stadium in 1996. 
There is a good ground to pursue the idea of trainspotting which has proved to draw interest in anywhere else in Europe. The existing railway station is one of the architectural pearls in Estonia and since 1997 it has been home for the Estonian Railway Museum and Tourism Information Centre. The outdoor exhibition consists of several steam locomotives from 1940's and 50's and wagons from the beginning of century. 
Also, birdwatching is one of the ways to go. Every spring over 600 different species can be found around Haapsalu. There is going to be a birdwatching tower built. A little more spice for the ones who are looking for it could add a visit to an abondoned soviet airfield, which will certainly shock not both locals and tourists. There is a quite a variety of everything in Haapsalu. The only thing that this town will never have is a "big city" feeling. Haapsalu is and proudly will be an idyllic little haven.