It’s 3.45pm on a Sunday in Helsinki’s Kaivopuisto park and I’m warming-up near a man dressed as the city’s cathedral. A headdress of neoclassical domes sets the outfit off, but it’s the Senate Square cathedral steps that have won him the best outfit award at the inaugural Darude Sandstorm Run. For Daniel Erikson, who has travelled from New York especially, it’s well-deserved.
The Darude Sandstorm Run is a suitably silly marker of 25 years of both Finnish DJ Darude’s career and the release of the music video for Sandstorm. First released in Finland in 1999, the track is a trance earworm notable for its du-du-du-du-du riff, as if being emitted from some futuristic pan pipes. It went global the following year, along with a semi-iconic music video shot in Helsinki, viewed 306m times on YouTube. I, Erikson and 825 others are now gearing up to run the route documented in its cops-and-robbers storyline.
