Literary tourism for international guests in Sotkamo and Kajaani

Literary tourism and new technologies: N-LiTe project had its 14^th partner meeting in Kainuu region, Finland, on the 1^st and 2^nd of April 2025.

Imelda McCarron (Lead Partner, Western Development Commission, Ireland) opened the meeting and the host team at the Regional Council of Kainuu welcomed all. Cultural Enabler Karan Thompson told about Cultural Tourism.

Kajaani University of Applied Sciences has been working on an immersive technology platform. Kyösti Koskela and Niko Kuivalainen presented the current status of the pilots. The game development team has worked intensively with the pilots with all the partner regions.

The partners attended a guided tour in Sotkamo by bus. Our guide Helena Aaltonen told about the writers, businesses, and history of Sotkamo. Sotkamo is a municipality in the Kainuu region with a population of 10 000 people. Sotkamo is known for its Finnish baseball team Sotkamon Jymy, sports education possibilities, nature and mines. Also a nationally well-known novelist and forest-scientist Veikko Huovinen lived his entire life in Sotkamo. Our tour’s theme was “on Veikko Huovinen’s footsteps”.

We visited the top of the Vuokatti hill, where author Veikko Huovinen wrote his first book, when working as a fire guard in the small fire watch house on the top of the hill. We also visited Huovinen’s reconstructed office at Huovishuone, and heard about his production and life more from another guide Helena Voutilainen. Helena read a short piece from Huovinen’s Tale of the forest folk. We got to know, that Veikko Huovinen was a humorist, who was brave enough to laugh at dictators. Northern people and forests play a crucial role in his novels and other writings.

In the evening we had dinner at Haapala Restaurant and Brewery in the middle of the fields in Sotkamo, and the first brewery in Kainuu region. The food was locally produced, and fish (pike-perch) from the nearest lakes.

Wednesday: Sotkamo library and Kajaani’s destinations

Wednesday 2^nd started with the 4th Steering Group meeting. After the meeting and lunch, the last round of literary activities started.

Cultural producer Marko Karvonen from the municipality of Sotkamo presented us the new wooden library in Sotkamo and showed us results of culture and technology projects. We got the chance to watch the new collaboration music video “The Song of the Hunger Land”, based on Kainuu’s regional anthem (Nälkämaan laulu), written by author Ilmari Kianto. The library and the music video project are both examples of combining cultural heritage, new technologies and modern aesthetics.

After the library visit, the bus took us 50 kilometres to Kajaani, and we got familiar with our nationally well-known poet Eino Leino. Maarit Tartia-Kallio presented us the poet’s house and served coffee at Eino Leino House in Paltaniemi, Kajaani. The house is on the shore of the big lake Oulujärvi. The house is a replica of Eino Leino’s birth home and tells the story of two great Finnish authors, Elias Lönnrot and Eino Leino.

Later in the afternoon, we visited the oldest building in Kajaani, Raatihuone (Old City Hall). Raimo Reinikainen told us about Elias Lönnrot, who collected the Finnish national epic Kalevala. We also heard a short piece of runosong (rune-singing) from Kalevala, sung by Raimo. Raimo had seen the pilot game experience of N-LiTe project, related to Kalevala, and was happy to see new versions of the epic.