It was near 2 AM on Saturday as the sun beamed through the dusted-over windows of Solstice Festival's Peak Stage. Situated half a kilometre above sea level in the Arctic fjeld of Rukatunturi, the festival grounds floated over pines, creating an atmosphere that felt as close to heaven on earth as you can get while dancing in endless sunshine. After an inaugural edition in 2019, the small Finnish festival went on hiatus as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a halt. Three years later, it returned to northern Finland to coincide with Midsummer, the national holiday that marks summer's high point and usually involves dancing around a Maypole. High above the sprawling trees and thousands of lakes that dot Finland, Solstice swapped out the pole for three days packed with world-class DJ sets and a scattering of art installations across Rukatunturi.

For Solstice Festival's second edition, a who's who of Helsinki's nightlife community and a sprinkling of ravers from around the world packed their best festival fits—everything from gothcore to Gorpcore could be seen on the grassy hills. As the sun slowly dipped close to the horizon before bouncing back into the sky, 24 hours of light provided a solar-powered burst of energy that mesmerised everyone during the day and kept them raving well into the night. As unsuspecting families in the nearby Ruka Village gathered to do their own midsummer festivities, partiers streamed past, hiking and taking ski lifts up to the festival grounds for a daily dose of earth-shaking bass, smooth funk, and experimental sounds that seamlessly fused nature with noise.

At the top of the fjeld, the Peak Stage brought heavier tones that kicked up clouds of dust and sent bodies contorting with aggressive vigour—or caused partiers to climb onto window sills to overlook a crowd snaking their way to Ben UFO's fiery Friday closing set. Meanwhile, down the hill, the Valley Stage was a three-day experiment infusing funky, soulful sound into the serenity of nature. The result was an atmosphere that resembled an adult summer camp as clusters of partiers lolled around in grass, watching the packed dance floor dip and sway to the endless rhythm of sets from the likes of Cool DJ Pinball, Jenifa and DJ Aleksi.

After a stretch of days spent immersed in music, art, nature and endless light, the festival in the north of Finland was nearing its end—and then came the intimate familiarity of Bomfunk's 1999 track "Freestyler." As the final track in a dynamic back-to-back between Spekki Webu and Mama Snake, it was a perfect pick to close out a festival that has become one of the best-kept secrets within Finland's nightlife scene. As one of the most Finnish viral tracks to blow up internationally, "Freestyler" also came wrapped up in a national pride that sent an electric current through the crowd so powerful it could certainly have charged the nearby ski resort.

There was a serenity and magic to the entire experience. Even now, hundreds of kilometres removed from the beautiful panoramic views of Finland's famed lakes and forests, it feels difficult to say with certainty whether Solstice Festival was a dream or reality. Revellers swayed and stomped at the Peak and Valley stages, caught intimate live sets inside the Kelo Tent or simply took to the rolling, flower-speckled hills to soak up the pristine views and sun that only northern Finland could provide. For everyone who gathered at Rukatunturi this year, the cosmic mix of music, art and nature provided a soul-cleansing experience.

After starting strong and nasty, Roza Terenzi's closing set on Thursday ensured the festival's first day was one that would not soon be forgotten as she guided the crowd on a heavy sonic journey.

On Friday, the heat ratcheted up, the buzz of mosquitoes provided a background symphony on the festival grounds and a mystical series of live performances could be seen inside the Kelo Tent. During one particularly intoxicating hour, DJ Emkay switched things up with sultry vocals under her alter-ego, Gem-K, alongside Sansibar and guitarist Grande Mahogany, the last of which noted afterwards that the "intimacy of the tent was a nice teleportation to a smaller world full of love." It was also a favourite of one festival attendee, the towering Helsinki-based photographer Akseli, who loved the "ethereal vibes" of Gem-K as much as the smoky, follow-up performance by Emma DJ. "The tent was full of smoke and you'd barely see them performing which made me focus more on the soundscapes they created," he said.

For the trio of Gem-K, Sansibar and Grande Mahogany, the Kelo Tent provided a quieter, more groove-focused playground to experiment that contrasted beautifully against both Sansibar's highly-anticipated live performance and Emkay's powerhouse five-hour set the day prior at the Peak Stage—with the latter featuring a hypnotic meld of tracks that included Maara's "Lezzies in a Jacuzzi", Nice Cream's "Song 2" and a remix of Missy Elliott's "Lose Control" that whipped the crowd into a frenzy.

After a quieter start spent lounging hillside for many hungover ravers, Ben UFO landed and brought his otherworldly skills to the decks. As he left the stage at 2 AM and people filtered down the hill with energy still pumping through their dust-covered bodies, it was no surprise that a stream of punters made their way onto the only dance floor cloaked in darkness: a basement room in a nearby cabin fit with red strip lighting, a smoke machine and blackout curtains heavy enough to keep the sun away for a few hours.

Within seconds, a crowd already teeming with energy from the endless sun fully went wild and gave every last ounce of energy to the dance floor situated inside an old ski lift station—as clouds of dust continued to coat everything and everyone. When the final lyrics drifted up towards the lush evergreen trees, a sense of euphoria and shock settled onto the scene. One attendee, Anton, whose long, wild hair and contorting body had whipped around the festival grounds for days like a wizard in a storm, pinched himself. "Was that real?" he asked nobody in particular.

The moment was just as surreal behind the decks for Mama Snake, who returned to the event after DJing the inaugural edition back in 2019. "Solstice is the reason why Spekki and I got together and had an instant deep brain connection. Going back-to-back with this legend was so much fun and I can't wait for all the other ones we have planned," she explained before rattling off a number of tracks she was happiest to unleash on the crowd (An unreleased Spekki track, the Onleash's psychedelic Norwegian track "Inositol" and Ezy's "Freeform Rabbit" were a few).

While the back-to-back mind meld of Mama Snake and Spekki Webu stupefied the crowd up top, the more funk-oriented Valley Stage was closed out with a superstar quadruple back-to-back. As the wooden stage bobbed with the bounce of the crowd and the midnight sun glinted off a disco ball, PLO Man, Vladimir Ivkovic and Hashman Deejay united for a set. The soundscape included one of Ivkovic's favourite tracks, "Praise the Lord" by Madonna303, which he brought with the intention of playing alongside PLO Man. By the time the decks were switched off and the crowd began heading downhill on that final day, the totality of what we had experienced began to sink in.

After playing sets on Friday and Saturday, Vladimir Ivkovic was brimming with positivity by the time the taxi shuttled him back to his hotel. "Just gratitude to the laws of physics and all the people who made Solstice possible," he said before reflecting on his four-hour closing set on Friday. A memory of playing one track in particular, Brittany Dubson's "Du Sang," stayed with him. "I remember playing this [track] quite early and then everything became slightly psychedelic."