Hardstyle in Finland is attracting a growing audience of young adults, as events dedicated to harder electronic music expand and a new generation of Finnish DJs emerges. The genre, once confined to a relatively small underground scene, is increasingly visible at major festivals, on social media and across Helsinki’s nightlife.
The strongest evidence of this growth came in May, when the two-day SoundVault Festival, focused on hardstyle, hard techno and other harder electronic genres, attracted more than 7,000 people to the Suvilahti district of Helsinki.
The festival was organised by the SoundVault collective, founded in 2021. Its rise reflects a broader expansion of harder dance music in Finland, supported by established events such as the Helzinki Hardstyle Festival and by organisers including Finnish DJ Proteus, whose real name is Harri Andersson.
Hardstyle in Finland offers energy and community
Hardstyle developed in the Netherlands in the early 2000s and is generally characterised by fast tempos, distorted kick drums, powerful bass lines and melodic buildups. Contemporary artists frequently combine these elements with influences from 1990s eurodance, trance and the early-2000s hands up style.
Finnish DJ and producer Miia Solar, whose real name is Jenna Nieminen, told Yle that the genre’s appeal lies in its combination of intensity and optimism.
“The best thing about hardstyle is its energy and positivity. It allows you to forget everything else for a moment,” Solar said.
She discovered hardstyle at the age of 12, when the genre was still relatively unknown in Finland. After experiencing bullying at school and difficulties at home, she began sharing music with online friends through the Finnish-founded virtual community Habbo Hotel.
The music and its community became a source of belonging. That experience now mirrors the motivations Solar sees among many younger people entering the scene.
According to her, hardstyle provides shared experiences, acceptance and a temporary escape from the pressures associated with constant online visibility.
“At hardstyle events, the pressures created by social media are not there. You can be yourself, and the scene accepts you exactly as you are,” she said.
Social media is bringing rave culture to Generation Z
The relationship between hardstyle and social media is not straightforward. Young listeners may seek events as places where they can disconnect from their phones, but platforms such as TikTok have also played a major role in exposing them to the genre.
Short videos showing large crowds, distinctive rave clothing, lights and festival performances have made harder electronic music more visible to audiences outside its traditional fan base. Interest in rave culture and related fashion has also spread through visual platforms such as Pinterest.
This has brought increasing numbers of people in their early twenties into Finnish clubs and festivals. For many members of Generation Z, hardstyle events offer an experience centred on physical presence and collective participation rather than individual online performance.
The genre’s revival also overlaps with renewed interest in late-1990s and early-2000s popular culture. Artists combine sounds associated with eurodance acts such as Cascada with colourful and deliberately excessive visual styles.
Solar’s recent track Take Control, for example, combines hardstyle’s characteristic reverse bass with eurodance and hands up influences.
More women are entering Finland’s harder electronic scene
The expansion of harder electronic music has also created more space for women DJs and producers.
Alongside Solar and hardstyle artist J7, Finland’s scene includes Agnia in hard techno, Hapankorppu in drum and bass and Minzeru in industrial music. They follow pioneers such as Finnish electronic music artist Milla Lehto.
Women nevertheless remain a relatively new presence in several parts of the scene. Solar said some audience members still express surprise when women demonstrate technical skills behind the decks.
“Anyone can learn and manage this. But it is still great that women are rocking,” she said.
Solar was also scheduled to perform at Defqon.1, one of the world’s most prominent hardstyle festivals, in the Netherlands in June. Her appearance was interrupted shortly before it began when organisers changed the programme because of extreme heat and a Code Orange weather warning.
The invitation itself was significant. Few Finnish hardstyle artists have reached an event of Defqon.1’s international scale, which was sold out in 2026.
A larger scene that still sees itself as underground
Hardstyle remains far smaller than mainstream pop music in Finland. However, the growth of festivals, younger audiences and Finnish performers suggests that it is moving beyond its former niche.
Its appeal depends partly on this balance. The music can reach larger audiences without completely abandoning the identity, visual codes and sense of community associated with underground rave culture.
For young Finnish listeners, hardstyle appears to offer something that is increasingly difficult to find online: an intense but welcoming collective experience, built around music rather than personal visibility.
Whether the genre becomes fully mainstream is less important than the infrastructure now developing around it. Larger events, new artists and international opportunities indicate that harder electronic music has secured a more permanent position in Finland’s cultural landscape.
