A diverse Jukola Culture Week will be built around Vuokatti-Jukola, which will be held in June 2027. During the event week, visitors in Vuokatti and Sotkamo will be able to enjoy culture, sport and nature experiences.According to Anu Korhonen, Cultural Coordinator for Vuokatti-Jukola, combining the traditional Jukola Relay with Kainuu’s local culture is a unique opportunity.– Nature and culture together offer a wealth of experiences. We can bring them together into a wonderful package for Vuokatti-Jukola, Korhonen says.The host municipality of Vuokatti-Jukola, Sotkamo—selected as Finland’s most active municipality in 2025—has invested heavily in developing local culture in recent years. The idea for the Vuokatti-Jukola Culture Week was inspired especially by the local author Veikko Huovinen, whose 100th anniversary will be celebrated in 2027.T-shirts featuring a quote by Veikko Huovinen will be available for purchase in the spring through Vuokatti Sport and the Sotkamo municipal online store.– The idea of hindsight from The Thinker of Havukka-aho, Konsta Pylkkänen, fits well with the mindset of orienteers too, Korhonen notes.One of the goals of the Culture Week is to extend visitors’ stay through various side events. The detailed programme will be published in summer 2026 and will include highlights from other municipalities in Kainuu as well.
The months are passing quickly, and as of early February there are only 500 days left until the first Jukola weekend ever hosted in Kainuu, in Sotkamo.
Jessika Rolig, Head of Support Operations for Vuokatti-Jukola, says she is expecting an enormous event by Finnish and Kainuu standards when the orienteering community gathers in Vuokatti in June 2027. For Vuokatti Sport, the event is also a major undertaking in cooperation with Sotkamon Jymy.
“We have the opportunity to show what we can do after years of committed work in sports. It’s wonderful to bring the Jukola atmosphere to Vuokatti,” Rolig says.
Plans, agreements, and background preparations are now beginning to turn into concrete work in Vuokatti. According to Rolig, the long winter and late-arriving spring may pose challenges from the organizers’ perspective.
However, some functions related to the competition centre can already be built this year, and cooperation with educational institutions can also be utilized. Who knows—perhaps even the Jukola saunas will be heated before the end of the year.
“We need to be able to anticipate our work, even if the snow doesn’t melt until after May Day.”
Strong performance in Finland’s most active municipality
The Vuokatti-Jukola organizers are excited about the strength of the Jukola brand, especially after registration for the first phase of Kotka-Jukola opened with record numbers. They hope this momentum will carry into Vuokatti in the summer of 2027.
Rolig herself has competed in four Venla relays and has known the event since childhood. She believes the Jukola weekend will embrace the Vuokatti spirit through its activity and unique event area, as the hill landscapes and surrounding nature inspire people to move.
“Kainuu has its own special relationship with nature and physical activity,” Rolig says.
The host municipality Sotkamo was also named Finland’s most active municipality of 2025 in January.
The Vuokatti-Jukola course setters, Marko Uotila and Jarmo Puttonen, already have a good idea of what the Vuokatti-Jukola competition terrain will bring to orienteers. The Venla and Jukola Relay courses are not yet ready, but the two have a rough idea.
“The courses will still change a lot, but we have good suggestions that can be included in the final version,” Puttonen thinks.
Uotila and Puttonen are planning the courses for both the Venla and Jukola Relays together. Both have worked as course setters on a many events, and they acted as course setters together at the 2025 World Orienteering Championships in Kuopio. Uotila has been the course setter for the Jukola Relay before, in Sippu-Jukola in 2005.
“This is the kind of job that it’s hard to say no to. Being the Jukola course setter is a dream job for many,” says Uotila.
The duo largely perform their course master duties remotely, with maps at their disposal: Puttonen lives in Jyväskylä and Uotila in Kouvola. As course setters of Vuokatti-Jukola, they have already familiarized themselves with the terrain on a few occasions, and before the actual race weekend they will make five more longer trips to the area. The next time they will head to the terrain of Vuokatti is in the summer of 2026.
According to Puttonen and Uotila, the interestingness and challenge of the Planner pest are increased by many other things to consider in addition to the courses. In September, they toured the terrain, considering possible locations for television and drinking controls, among other things.
Spruce, pine and boulders, is how Puttonen describes the views of the September walk. In their duties, the course setters get to utilize various small and large areas as well as ground with varying speeds.
“In this terrain, the courses automatically become sufficiently demanding. You can’t make them too easy,” Uotila says.
During the coming winter, the course plans will be refined together with the course supervisor. The plans will be completed for next summer, when they will be able to tour the terrain with the finished map of Vuokatti-Jukola. The course setters’ work is quite secret, but quite exceptionally, there is a relatively new map of the area.
“Those people who are interested in Jukola have certainly already planned the course themselves, how to go about the terrain,” Puttonen laughs.
Pre-Jukola, which will be held in Sotkamo on June 27th, 2026, is one of the Relay League races.
In total, seven competitions will be competed in the 2026 Relay League, of which three competitions will be held in the spring season before the Jukola and Venla relays, one competition in midsummer and two competitions in the autumn.
– The competition program is built according to a familiar formula, but this time Pre-Jukola will be competed at the end of June in Sotkamo, just before the Kainuu Orienteering Week, says Timo Saarinen, the Finnish Orienteering Federation’s event manager and Relay League producer.
According to Saarinen, the Relay League promises diverse terrain, and the aim is to seek a little variety in the competition concepts.
– The starting point is of course the familiar three-leg relays, which get a lot of teams to the line and tight battles, Saarinen summarizes.
