By Carol Martin
SooToday.com
Thursday, October 01, 2009

Things in Sault Ste. Marie next July are going to be hot hot hot.

So says Michael Porter, first vice-chair of the 2010 Finnish Grand Festival.

The Finnish Grand Festival is coming to Sault Ste. Marie July 28 to August 1, 2010 and Porter was talking it up at last night's Chamber of Commerce Take 5 event.

"This is a very packed five-day festival," he said. "There will be something for everybody."

Heck, there will even be something for fans of Finnish reggae music.

Conga Se Menne is among the long list of performers who will be taking the stage to entertain the more than 5,000 or more visitors and locals expected for the festival.

And organizers also have a major project planned for the event: they plan to build the world's largest sauna.

The attempt has even been sanctioned by the Guinness World Records people, Porter said.

The sauna will basically be a house frame and will be donated to Habitat For Humanity afterward so they can convert it into a house for people to live in.

If tropical sauna rhythms and the world's largest sauna aren't enough, festival participants can also partake in Finnish theatre productions, youth shows and other cultural events at the Kiwanis Community Theatre at White Pines.

There will also be a series of sporting events offered at the John Rhodes Community Centre and Queen Elizabeth fields, as well as events taking place at the Bondar Park and Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre.

The festival will include a marketplace for unique hand-crafted items and other events that will be located at the Essar Centre.