Helsinki’s Flow Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary this August with PJ Harvey, Janelle Monáe, Vince Staples and more.

First held as a tiny club event in 2004, Flow has since grown into the sprawling concrete complex known as Suvilahti. And for the 20th time, they’ve staged a razor-sharp programme showcasing everything from charting stars to the best in alternative music today. 

Across three days, the festival welcomed a wave of artists ranging from the ever-flamboyant Pulp to Bristolian punks Idles, Drain Gang mainstay Ecco2k and Scottish-Danish composer and producer Clarissa Connelly, as well as a selection of electronic names including Helena Hauff and Crystallmess.

Amongst all the eclectic sets performed this year, here are the five key performances that defined this year’s edition. 

PJ Harvey

Draped in a striking linen cape, Harvey’s precise dancing enhanced the eerie folklore of her latest album I Inside the Old Year Dying, commanding incredible amounts of stage presence with very little movement. 

Deeper into the set, Harvey broke loose of her cape, lithely moving across the stage before tearing into classics like 50ft Queenie and Man-Size.

Janelle Monáe

By now, it’s pitch-black at midnight on the Friday: the perfect time for hedonism. Enter Janelle Monáe, and cue The Age of Pleasure. Shrugging off a heaving coat made of giant flowers to reveal a slinky black bodysuit, Monáe initiated her ceremony of indulgence in the cavernous Silver Tent. 

Coat after coat, Monáe cycled through incredible MJ-inspired choreography on Make Me Feel, and blew the roof off with her strutting performance of Champagne Shit. Every song was staged to the high heavens, and Monáe’s enthusiastic MCing rounded off a spectacular first night.