Kaarle XII

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Clubs in Finland : Kaarle XII (Helsinki)
Interview : Kari Väyrynen (manager of Kaarle XII)

How would you present or describe your club?
NightClub Kaarle XII is one of the largest clubs in Helsinki area. We have been the best party place for last 20 years for people over 24 years. We have two floors, downstairs we play music from Beatles to Robbie Williams and its speciality is FinnishPoP music. This music makes people sing louder than the speakers. Upstairs is a disco and it plays today's radio dance hits. Many foreign bussiness persons aims their arrivals to Helsinki always on thursdays 'cause that day is our bussiest party night. We are not a restaurant, we are a pure nightclub.

When was established your club and who had this idea?
Kaarle XII was established 1976 and the idea came from our owners board (Oy Primula Ab).

How was choosen the name of the club?
Year 1976 restaurant was almost ready to open but only thing that was missing was the name. Then one man within the project said that " Because this building is a very old castle -like and its owned by a swedishfinnish student fraternity and we already have this painting on the wall representing Kaarle XII, late King of Sweden, why don't we take his name. " This way the restaurant had its name.

For the persons who don't know well Helsinki, could you explain where it is located?
Kaarle XII is located well in Helsinki center but not in the hottest and easy to find area. Our main users are customers who are living in center of city or downtown and that way we are " for those who knows "- kind of place. We don't advertise ourselves and we don't try to attract tourists (sorry), but tourists who knows about us visits us everytime they come again to Finland.

Is the location an important thing?
For new places it is the most important thing. Older succesfull places people and taxis already knows where they are and it is not as important, at least in towns that are about Helsinki size.

Do you have a web site?
Yes we do and the address is www.kaarle.com

What kind of music do you play?
Upstairs we play today's dance hits and downstairs wide range of party music from 50's to today's favorites.

Is it difficult to find a good Dj?
We don't use proffessional Dj's 'cause we train our own staff to play our kind of music.

Do you organize special evenings or happenings?
We have four special evenings through year for our V.I.P customers only. For regular customers we arrange bands, single nights, valentine's special, winter fun, fashion nights, mr. and miss competitions and so on. Also on wednesdays we have college partys for students over 20 years. Different company's uses us a lot 'cause we have a good capasity to arrange their private partys.

How would you describe your regular customer?
He/She is well educated, over 24, working, lives in center of city and is an active person and also single, when needed ...... : )

Do you have an age limit?
For 27 years we have had our age limit 24 years. We prefer adult customers 'cause they have had their moments with alcohol and they already know better what they like.

What are the specialties of your club (these little things we don't find anywhere else)?
We have many bussiness ideas within one restaurant. Bar # 1 has large selections of beer, siders, whiskys, brandys and cigars, bar # 2 is for mingling and resting, bar # 3 is for absolut party and for singing, bar # 4 has coctails and roulette/black jack, bar # 5 has a variety of drinks and disco, bar # 6 is for people who likes to be seen.

Regarding the decoration, did you choose / follow a certain theme or a certain style?
We follow modern historic aproach 'cause the building itself is castle -like and it is breath taking from inside. This house is protected by museum authorities, so what ever we do, we have to honour the old.

Is the decoration of a club important?
Yes it is. Again I have to say that for new places it is the only way to stand out from the mass.

To conclude this interview, are there any projects or happenings in the near future for your club?
We have two projects going on but I can't tell you yet what they are. It is always important to be in the movement.

Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2003