Welcome to Ilomantsi, Finland!
The focus of the bear sculpting competitions is chainsaw sculpting, and the subject is the bear. You are welcome to follow the current situation of the Bear Festival on the new website www.karhufestivaali.fi.
The Bear Forest
Sculpting wood is the most natural form of self-expression among Finnish self-taught artists; the chainsaw is the most common instrument and the bear is the best-loved of all subjects. This is the foundation for the Bear Festival.
We would like to turn Ilomantsi into ”A Land of a Thousand Bears” in the coming years. It will be a sculpture park Bear Forest, built along the village roads, a display of different sculpting styles that attracts visitors from near and far. In the sculpture park, the mythical realm of the forest’s king meets man’s cultural environment.