YLITYS

Late August in Oulu. The long northern light is just beginning to soften,

the first whisper of autumn in the air. The Oulujoki has carried this city for

centuries, tar boats, salmon, the slow weight of seasons. At Merikoski,

the river doesn’t rush. It moves with a kind of quiet authority, wide and

unhurried, its surface catching the sky.

Stand at the edge of the Alakanava channel and listen. The water finds its

way over stone. The city breathes around it.

Now look up.

On 22 August 2026, two women will step out above that water.

Sixty metres of wire. Four metres above the surface. Eight metres above

the river below. No net. Just the wire, the late summer light, and each

other.

YLITYS is a free, outdoor spectacle created for Oulu’s year as European

Capital of Culture  and a historic Finnish premiere. Never before have

two women crossed a wire of this scale together in Finland. What you will

witness is not a stunt. It is a ritual: a moment in which performers,

audience, and city come together on the riverbank and hold their breath as

one.

Rooted in Oulu’s landscape and the living memory of the Tuira rapids,

YLITYS pays tribute to what this river has carried and reaches forward

with hope. It is a quiet answer to the myth of solitary daring: an ode to

vulnerability, to trust, to being held up by others.

This is the crossing.

YLITYS - 22 August 2026, Merikoski, Oulu. Free entry. Part of the

official Oulu2026 programme.

Produced by Lumo Company.