Beer floating (''Kaljakellunta'' in Finnish) is an open and unofficial Finnish summer event. In the event, the participants float on the

Kerava River The ' ( sv, Kervo å; the Kerava River) is a river in Finland. The 65-kilometer-long river starts from Lake Ridasjärvi in Hyvinkää,

or on the

Vantaa River The Vantaa ( fi, Vantaanjoki, ) is a long river in Southern Finland. The river starts from the lake in Hausjärvi and flows into the Gulf of Finland at ' in Helsinki. One of the tributaries of the Vantaa river is Keravanjoki that flows throug ...

from

Vantaa Vantaa (; sv, Vanda, ) is a city and Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Greater Helsinki, Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa i ...

to a downstream riverside beach in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. The participants use small rubber crafts while equipping usually nothing more than a paddle and loads of

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

. The event has no official organizers but instead the date is decided on online social forums such as

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. The Beer floating event is also organized in

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

, where the participants float on the

Oulu River Oulujoki is a river in Oulu province, Finland. Its name in Finnish means literally "Oulu River" ( sv, Ule älv), originally in old Northern Ostrobothnian dialect literally "Flood River". Its origin is Oulujärvi and its watershed area covers ...

. The Beer floating event has been organized annually since 1997. There were under 10 participants in the first event in 1997 but ever since the number of participants has grown every year. In 2011, around 5,000 people participated in the event.Kaljakellunta saanut jopa 5000 ihmistä veteen Vantaalla
''Iltalehti.fi, 30 Jul 2011'', referred on 30 Mar 2012 The date of the Beer floating event has been varying but the most likely date is considered to be either the last weekend in July or the first weekend in August.

References

{{Reflist

External links

www.kaljakellunta.org/en
Entertainment events in Finland Recurring events established in 1997 Summer events in Finland 1997 establishments in Finland Alcohol in Finland Events in Finland