by Nick Drew | Wed 09 Feb 2022
Finns Gear Up for Excavator Snow Sculpture Competition
The first competition, as reported on this blog, was held back in 2019, in an event which attracted more than 20 excavators and operators, who were keen to take on the challenge of creating a work of art with out of snow in Juupajoki, which is about 56 kilometres north of Tampere, in the Pirkanmaa region of Finland.
The Finns are well known for fun and crazy activities and this is definitely one of those events that attracts a lot of spectators for a fun filled family day out.
According to the show organisers, after the last event, hundreds of people kept arriving at the site to see the sculptures that had been created before then inevitably melted away during the thaw.
Unfortunately, there was no significant snow fall in the winter of 2020, and last year the corona pandemic meant that the event could not take place, but this year its all systems go and it will take place on February 26th.
Early preparations have been taking place, and there has been plenty of snow this year, so local entrepreneurs have been tipping snow and forming the piles ready for the event, each snow pile will be raffled off.
For this year’s event, there are going to be two categories, in the first category, the creativity of the competitor is measured, quite how that is done is unclear, but the competitor is allowed to bring as many different aids (work tools to fit the machine) to the area as is possible.
In the second category, its more traditional, the competitor can only use two aids (work tools) and an assistant on the ground.
This year the organizers are expecting around 30 competitors will take part with an equal number of machines involved.
Checkout this video from the last event in 2019.
I hope to bring a report on the event this year in due course, if any of our Finnish friends would like to share material with me it would be much appreciated.