The music presented at Flow Festival is a varied selection of artists from indie rock to soul and jazz and from folk to contemporary club sounds – from both the Finnish and the international scene.
In addition to music, Flow Festival is about urban spaces, visual arts, film screenings, talks, design as well as food and drinks.
Notable artist appearances at Flow Festival over the years have included artists such as Iggy Pop, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Kanye West, Lana Del Rey, Lily Allen, The Roots, The Black Keys, Beach House, Kraftwerk, Björk, M.I.A., Bon Iver, Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy, Cat Power, The National, Outkast, Action Bronson, Manic Street Preachers, Vampire Weekend, Iron & Wine, My Bloody Valentine and Lykke Li.
[5] Starting under the Flow, the inaugural festival consisted of two nights at an indoor club in the now destroyed VR warehouses in downtown Helsinki with a capacity of around 2000.
Performances included those of Marlena Shaw, Ty, Nuspirit Helsinki, The Five Corners Quintet, Norman Jay, Jazzanova, Bugz in the Attic and Nicola Conte.
The Flow Festival 2007 line-up included Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators, Architecture in Helsinki, Op:l Bastards, Risto, Jori Hulkkonen, Pepe Deluxé, Terry Callier and The Valkyrians.
[10] The musical line-up consisted (among others) of Lily Allen, Kraftwerk, Vampire Weekend, Grace Jones, White Lies, Yann Tiersen, Final Fantasy and Fever Ray.
[12] Line-up included Kanye West, Röyksopp, MF Doom, Empire of the Sun, Lykke Li, Iron & Wine and The Human League.
[17] Line-up included Pet Shop Boys, Florence and the Machine, Major Lazer, Belle and Sebastian, Seinabo Sey, Foxygen, Beck, Róisín Murphy and CHIC featuring Nile Rodgers among others.
[18] In 2017 the festival was held from 11 to 13 August and the line-up consisted of artists like Lana Del Rey, London Grammar, Roy Ayers, Skott, the XX, Alma, Frank Ocean, Aphex Twin.