Seinäjoki

Seinäjoki is a city in Southern Ostrobothnia. Seinäjoki is the biggest city and the centre of the Region of South Ostrobothnia, in western Finland. It is in the junction of five railways and at the intersection of several main roads. Peräseinäjoki, Ylistaro and Nurmo have been merged into Seinäjoki. The municipality of Isokyrö (Storkyro) is handled in this article too.

Understand
At the beginning of the 1900s, a railway connection was established to Seinäjoki, which meant rapid development of the area. Seinäjoki railway station became an important railway hub.

In the early 1900s, several factories were also established in Seinäjoki. With the factories, industry in Seinäjoki grew rapidly and the town became a major industrial city.

In the urbanisation of the 1960s, Seinäjoki grew dramatically. Seinäjoki became the centre of the region, with a wide range of services and good job opportunities. In 1960 Seinäjoki became a trading town and in 1967 a city.



By train
The easiest way to come to Seinäjoki is by train. If you take the fastest Pendolino trains the trip takes roughly three hours from Helsinki or Oulu and just over one hour from Tampere.

By bus
There are coach connections from Helsinki via Tampere (mostly Onnibus), from Vaasa (several companies) and from Pori. See Matkahuolto for timetables.

By plane
Seinäjoki Airport, located in the Ilmajoki municipality, is nowadays used only for some charter flights. The nearest airport with regular flights is in Vaasa.

There are daily regular flights to Vaasa airport from Helsinki (Finnair) and Stockholm, Sweden (SAS). An on-demand airport shuttle bus of Pahkakankaan Liikenne operates between Vaasa airport and Seinäjoki railway station. The shuttle bus can be pre-ordered at latest two days before arrival or departure (phone [tel:+358456453811 +358 45-645-3811], also SMS and e-mail orders are accepted, e-mail [mailto:posti@pahkakangas.fi posti@pahkakangas.fi]. The ride from Vaasa airport to Seinäjoki railway station costs €19 per traveller.

By car
Roads come in from all directions, as Seinäjoki is one of Western Finland's most important road junctions. Seinäjoki is about one hour's drive from Vaasa, and two and a half hours from both Tampere and Jyväskylä.

Isokyrö and Ylistaro are on the road from Vaasa, Peräseinäjoki to the south, Nurmo just north-east of the centre.

By foot
Seinäjoki is small enough that most of the things to see are easily reached by foot. When you exit the railway station, you will be facing the centre.

By bus
Härmän Liikenne offers local bus connections on weekdays and Saturdays but on Sundays there is no traffic. Route planner is available. The Routes and Tickets app may also be usable.

City of Seinäjoki operates on-demand minibus in Seinäjoki city and nearby region M-F 08:00–17:00.

Coaches can also be used; on Sundays they are the only form of public transport available. To go west you can use coaches to Teuva, Kauhajoki and Närpiö, and to go east, coaches to Karstula, Vimpeli and Kuortane.

By electric kick scooter
German Tier rents electric kick scooters for use in the centre.

By taxi

 * Keskustaksi, Taksini: see Southern Ostrobothnia
 * Isokyrö:
 * Puputaksi info@puputaksi.fi@undefined
 * Paulan Pirssit
 * Marja Mullola, Alariihitie 1
 * Tapio Lae Oy info@tapiolaeoy.com@undefined
 * Smartphone apps: 02 Taksi, Valopilkku

By bike
Easybike offers city bikes for rent.

See




Do

 * Football: SJK (Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho) play soccer in Veikkausliiga the top tier. Their home ground OmaSP Stadion (capacity 5800) is 1.5 km west of town centre.
 * Football: SJK (Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho) play soccer in Veikkausliiga the top tier. Their home ground OmaSP Stadion (capacity 5800) is 1.5 km west of town centre.

Tangomarkkinat
The Tango Festival gathers a huge crowd of over 100,000 people every year. There are several tango dance floors around the festival area – either in front of the stages or in some karaoke bars – as well as several events to please different kinds of tastes. There is even a “Tango-free Zone”, with rock and jazz concerts. People can enjoy the daily Tango parade, the Tango Street, and tango shows in the theatre and in the Seinäjoki Arena. It pays to schedule what you want to experience.

The event takes place every year since 1985, during the month of July, usually from Wednesday to Sunday. This is the Tango event with the most tickets sold worldwide. It is incredible to see thousands of people dancing in the streets, especially at the Tango Street (Tangokatu). Most of them start dancing at around 17:00 until 03:00.

The coronation of the Tango King and Queen is one of the most important and emotional parts of the event. These figures receive much domestic media attention and often recording contracts as well and they also perform their own shows at the tango Festival the following years. They will be fully booked to dance pavilions and other stages through the rest of the summer, and for some time onwards.

Besides the opportunity for dancing and the Tango Royalty contest, another purpose of this festival is to show new ways to do tango and to erase the idea that Tango has to be in the traditional style. There are many innovations, such us combining Finnish folk and tango, or jazz and tango, electronic tango and so on.

Many artists from around the world come to perform in this festival, including Argentinean tango artists.

It is a great experience to be in the Tango Street and feel the excitement of people. They are dancing from 17:00 until 03:00. Couples have the chance to be reunited, beginners to learn and practice the basic steps and friends to have a lot of fun. It is even hard to get tired because even the sun goes down after 23:00, the day light stay all night long, so before you know it is 02:00 or 03:00 in the morning. There are rock and jazz shows in bars and nightclubs, especially popular with the youth.

You have the choice of staying at one of the hotels or, as the majority does, bring a camper and park at the camping sites near the centre and just enjoy the spectacle from morning to late night.

Buy




Go next
From Seinäjoki there are easy train connections to the rest of Finland.


 * Ilmajoki, a neighboring municipality