Finnish Sports Gala 2023 (Urheilugaala)

Finally on 12th of January 2023, we got to celebrate Finnish sports with a big live event production after two years of special arrangements. Already 16th in its history, Finnish Sports Gala (Urheilugaala) rewarded the best athletes and most inspiring moments of a wonderful sports year. As a long-term partner of the gala, Creative Technology had the honor to deliver technical planning and implementation, and CT’s visual design unit Visual45 had created the beautiful set and lighting design. We managed to create a festive atmosphere to the venue in accordance with the event’s style, which was successfully conveyed to the home audiences via Yle’s live TV broadcast and also to the live audience and dinner guests in the venue.

For the first time, the Finnish Sports Gala was organized at the legendary Helsinki Ice Hall, where we have worked with numerous events throughout the years. Careful pre-planning, efficient equipment preparation at our Vantaa warehouse and precise build up of the event enabled a first-class outcome for the customer’s event. A total of seven semi-trailers loaded up with the best equipment (e.g. 330 pcs of lighting fixtures, 420 pcs of LED panels, 340 m of truss, over 5 km of cabling) were prepared in our warehouse for two days before being transported to the venue.

This year, special attention was paid to the venue’s use of space – almost all possible space of the Helsinki Ice Hall was used. During the planning phase of the event, our designers worked on getting more depth to the stage, in order to get more changing space. This way, the gala’s awards and program numbers succeeded smoothly in the precise schedule of the broadcast. The red carpet area of the event was also our responsibility in terms of technology.

“When making a glamorous gala of this size, where live moments and TV broadcasts are both essential parts of the production, you need the best possible professionals alongside you. It is special that we have been able to cooperate with CT all these years. They are professionals, amazing people, and have the right attitude. CT is one of the most important factors in the success of the Finnish Sports Gala.”

– Riia Martinoja, General Secretary of the Finnish Sports Gala

It was an honor to once again work with this amazing sports celebration! Thank you for the great cooperation Finnish Sports Gala, other partners and our wonderful event technology team who worked on the gala.