Phew what a weekend! Or what a couple of months, should I say! Last Friday the Lordi Scream Stream – Scarctic Circle Gathering was streamed worldwide and now after a few days have passed and we’re on the post-promotion part of the project, I’m starting to realize what a massive thing we pulled off and what a success it turned out to be.

It all started in mid March when the Corona virus stopped almost all activity in the world. It also affected the Finnish hard rock monstersquad Lordi, whose European tour Killectour was cut short with only half of the planned shows played.

I happened to be already affiliated with the band and immidiately when they got home we started thinking of what we could do to still reach out for the fans and to continue the work of the band on a time when all travelling and physical gathering had become impossible. 

Many artists had already begun to do livestream concerts and that’s what I suggested for Lordi to consider doing, too. But right at the beginning we already had a problem to solve. When all gear and props being left to a warehouse in Germany due to Corona, what kind of a show could they create with a band that is known for their ambitious performances and stage props?

While thinking of that, an idea arose amongst the band. If a normal show wasn’t doable, why not go to the other extreme, calm down the show, play with all the time in the world, open the backgounds of band history to the fans by answering their questions and honestly giving them something they’ve never gotten before? The band felt comfortable with the concept and thus they and the management of the band gave me the authorities to start scanning for possible partners for us to do this with. 

At that point is was clear that if my little start-up MapleStorm, meaning myself, was gonna go on producing the whole thing, I had to do it with a big financial risk. The whole concept would require a massive amount of my time and effort. Still, no one could predict if I was gonna do any profit out of it or even cross the finishing line whilst all entertainment business was to become almost crippled due to Corona restrictions.

In spite all of that, the possibilities of the concept were professionally so tempting that I didin’t hesitate a bit. I trusted my own talent and the main product, Lordi and their loyal fanbase. For me this was a chance to get my hands on something I believe I was born to do. I could use all my experience from television producing and presenting shows to scriptwriting and I knew I had the gut it would take.

Within the first week I had already collected offers from many different streaming companies and video companies. I did the pre evaluation with pros and cons of them and their offers and handed my report over to the band management, which chose our final partners and finished off the negotiations and deals. 

At the same time we were to decide with the band, where and when to physically do the actual stream from. I ran a scan through all band members’ and technicians’ calendars and after that we set the date for May 22, which happened to be nicely just around Lordi’s 14th anniversary of Eurovision victory. COVID-19 had its say to this also, because at that point the Finnish government executed a state of emergency with many restrictions, including the ban of traveling in and out of Uusimaa county. With the band members living in different cities, we had to plan the stream so that we could carry it out even if the restrictions would still stand at the time of the event. 

My idea was to play the show in Lapland, Rovaniemi – the hometown of the band leader and founder Mr. Lordi. Even though it would mean hundreds of extra kilometers for the band, it would also bring more value to the show with Rovaniemi being much more exotic to most of the international viewers than any other city in Finland. Also, we would get a chance to really introduce the origins of Lordi. It would also be a great assett to name the stream after Lordi’s legendary SCG – Scarctic Circle Gathering tracks. 

At that point we contacted the city of Rovaniemi and asked them if they would be willing to participate in our project and help make it possible. After a few days we got green light from there and I started planning how to show the amazing Lapland in the stream. I proposed an idea of making a special mini documentary as part of the show, naming it Rovaniemi According To Lordi. Visit Rovaniemi, which had at that point become our partner, was thrilled about the idea and after we delivered them a brief synopsis, they gave us free hands to start scriptwriting and shooting the mini documentary.

That alone was quite an effort but it turned out to be worth it and more! We shot all scenes on one day with our video company partner Saha prod, and managed to get along all the important local places, influencers and persons who had a role in lordistory, starting from Mr. Lordi’s personal working room and ending up at the Lordi’s Square. Through my own personal contacts in Lapland I even managed to get a pet reindeer Aatu from Local Lifestyle Rovaniemi to play an important role in couple of scenes. This mini documentary eventually turned out to be one of the high points of the whole stream.

Alright, while doing all of this we also had to find out the right venue to do the stream from. We checked a bunch of different alternatives, but they didn’t seem to quite fit the concept. If we were going to do an intimate stream, the venue would have a big part in it. It couldn’t be anything big and it should reflect the band’s image and the stream concept. Then out of nowhere I had an idea that turned out to be the winner. What if we did it in an actual rock bar! All the restaurants were  closed due to corona restrictions, so we might be able to find a partner there. And then I knew in my heart that the ONLY place that would fit the Scarctic Circle Gathering was Paha Kurki Rockhouse, a tiny local rock bar. Not only it normally hosts rock gigs, many of the items displayed on its walls are from Mr. Lordi’s personal collection. It’s a joint I had personally spent many great evenings at, so I knew it’d have the right atmosphere. We contacted the bar owners Marko and Laura (who by the way is part of lordistory with her background singing on Scare Force One and being a member of Mr.Lordi’s quire on the tv show Battle of the Quires), and they were all in right away. Yay!

Another important move was to reqruite the right person to host the stream. That was essential in order to be able to give the fans a chance to address questions to the band members during the stream. This was going to be an international show so it was obvious we would need a native english speaking person with the right attitude and charisma. I suggested to the band that they would ask Dylan Broda, a canadian drummer and also already a Lordi affiliate, for the job. He said yes.

Right in the beginning of all planning I had suggested Mr. Lordi, that in a way of adding special value to the stream, the band could ask their fans suggestions for what songs to play. It would be a way of making the stream a once in a lifetime experience and everyone in Lordi family would have a say in it. But that would also probably mean playing many songs that the band had’t played live ever before or at least in many years. Professionals as they are, Lordi had the gut to commit to this idea, which is a hats off -effort in my point of view. They didn’t have to do it but they did it anyway!

After all this work done we finally got to the point where we could go public and start to promote the show. For MapleStorm a.k.a. me it meant copywriting gig ads, writing press releases and planning the band’s social media content. The band launched the song vote right away at and the response from the fans was already mindblowing.

The vote result was as we assumed. Many rarities and b-sides that the fans were anxious to hear live. For the band this meant serious homework and rehearsing. At the same time they agreed on complementing my somewhat goofy and demanding ideas concerning the show marketing on social media. They were willing to scriptwrite and shoot special personal video clips with their costumes on. They didn’t have to do that either, but they did it anyway. The whole band gave its full commitment to make every step of this project succesful. But that’s what professionals do and professionals they are to the last bit.

The last weeks before the show were full of hands-on work for everyone involved to get even the tiniest details polished. My part was managering the travels, accommodations and catering, planning the schedule for showday, producing social media, writing a second press release, sequenzing the show that was planned to go on for three hours, writing the script for the host, and generally organizing this and that with everyone associated with the project.

Finally the showday arose. It was the first real spring day in Lapland. Load in, soundcheck, make up on. Last thing before the show was a band photoshoot at the Lordi’s square and about 9.45 PM Lordi were ready to go.

The stream started and both the band and the host were doing exellent job delivering the fans something unique and worthy of the 12 euros that the ticket had cost. I was producing the show at Saha prod’s producing van right outside the venue and simultaneously moderating the live chat that was part of the stream and the channel for the fans to send in their questions to the band. One of my jobs was also to screen the incoming questions and pass the best of them on to the show host Dylan.

Everything seemed to go just as planned, but after the first couple of songs it became obvious that the stream was in big trouble. We got hundreds of messages throughout the world reporting that the stream is lagging and after a while we heard that many of the viewers had been kicked out of the stream site keikalla.fi and couldn’t log back in. Disaster!

At that point I as a producer had four important missions to fulfill: 1) Stay calm and keep my mind clear and focused. 2) Enable the live gig to go on without distractions so the ticket buyers could get what they paid for, even if it would be only afterwards. 3) Find out out what was causing the lag 4) Inform the viewers about the situation quickly and transparently.

At that point no one knew what was gonna happen next. Would all our hard work be flushed into the sewer and thousands of angry fans left without what we promised to them? Very soon we got the information from keikalla.fi that the site was suffering from d Dos attack. I passed this information to the band so that they could aknowledge the problem in their speaks. At the same time I had to assure the whole crew to go on as planned. Suspending the show was not an option. I also got to see Saha prod technician doing everything in his power in the van to get the stream back up with the help of keikalla.fi technician on the phone. The dude was literally co-directing the show and fixing the lines at the same time!

Finally we started receiving messages that the stream was back on and people around the world could log in to the site again. Eventually most of the viewers lost only three songs live, but for me it felt like a year.

Lordi fans are the best fans in the world. Right after we got rid of the lag we started to get in positive feedback. They really loved the live versions of the songs that had won the fan vote. They kept sending really smart and funny questions to the band. And Lordi themselves kicked some serious ass playing and chatting and really having fun with their fans throughout the night despite the fact that we were almost facing a catastrophy just moments before. When we got to the part when our mini documentary of Rovaniemi got aired, it seemed that all was forgiven and the fans honestly felt that we are giving them something special they would remember the rest of their lives.

When the Rovaniemi insert was on air, I briefly visited the venue and addressed the band about the situation and told them that the show was doing great and the fans were hyped. I also made a suggestion that had come to my mind right after the stream got back up: We had promised a three hour live gig. According to the fans, most of them had missed about 30 minutes of the live stream. I knew that they would see the whole uninterrupted show afterwards, but I felt that even though the lagging wasn’t the band’s fault, we could try to make up for it right there, live. I suggested to the band that we would lengthen the show spontaneously from 3 hours to at least 3 hours 30 mins, so we would deliver what we were supposed to. The band understood immidiately and were on board before I had even finished my sentence. Professionals, as I said.

And so we did that. The band was awesome and I got to be in the front row witnessing their commitment to their fans, the fans’ love spreading through the chat box, the gathering of the whole Lordi family and the ultimate joy of getting to be a part of something that was a once in a lifetime thing for everyone involved from Rovaniemi, Finland to Brisbane, Australia. 

Lordi ended up playing for 3 hours 49 minutes. Positive feedback is still pouring in and keikalla.fi uploaded the uninterrupted file to the system already on the next day. What was the original reason for lagging, that I’m still not sure of and I’m not even gonna throw in any guesses. But I am proud of the whole team that despite the force majeur situation, we managed to go on with the show and ended up on the positive! 

It would have been easy for the team just to pick any venue in Helsinki and for Lordi to play the normal setlist of 90 minutes without any show. Lordi would have gotten stream audience even with that. But the easiest way is not the most rewarding way. This goes for Lordi as well as MapleStorm. It’s an attitude of giving your best, always. Even when things get rough. That’s called integrity. Right now I feel like we really set new standards for what a live stream can be.

So, the first international project for MapleStorm is now approaching the wrap up and I can safely say that I’m in the right place with my business. This is an example and a reminder for myself, too, that when all my experience, talent and know how is combined, I’m the right woman to run the production of a major project at any level in showbusiness, entertainmant or media. 

I’m gonna cherish this experience for the rest of my life and hope It’ll lead to even more fascinating and challenging projects in the future. But right now I’m celebrating the work well done with another cup of coffee and opening the script of my upcoming book Muutoksen matkaopas – Kartanlukuohjeita omaa tietään etsiville (to be published by Tammi in the autumn) and finish the last edits to that. Cheers!

PS. Lordi Scream Stream – Scarctic Circle Gathering is still available for viewing over at keikalla.fi. Tickets are sold here.