Around 200 people live in the community all year round. From May to September holiday makers come to the cabins and triple the population. People earn their livelihood from agriculture, forestry, tourism, transportation and services. Many people also commute to work to nearby communities such as the centre of the municipality Mäntyharju (32 km) or Ristiina (23 km). Thanks to the broadband Internet connection established in 2004, telecommuting is now possible.
In the recent years Halmeniemi has been widely known in Finland for its rural development projects. Unlike most small Finnish villages, Halmeniemi has had positive net migration starting 2000. The fight for the local village school has been in the headlines and on television many times a year. Starting March 2004 a seminar on rural development has been organized by village movement activists to encourage people to start and develop villages that represent the ways they want to live and work.
People and holiday makers in Halmeniemi are used to doing lots of voluntary work for their community. The local village house Halmela has been renovated with national funding and thousands of hours of volunteer time.
Several major events also are organized annually by volunteers. Today the events also draw the attention of regional sponsors. The most well-known wintertime event is Somura Winter Happening. In March over 200 people gather together to test an over 200-metre sledge hill and enjoy new winter sports first invented for the Somura audience. In July a summer party is organized for people to join together one Sunday afternoon. An evening that features old Finnish movies has taken place since 2003. Several local summer markets are held on Friday evening and Saturday morning for people to meet and buy local products directly from producers.
Halmeniemi has a music band, Lahjomattomat, which has recorded two CDs of their own music. The band performs several times a year at local events at the village house Halmela. In addition, since autumn 2004, a Finnish-German Kasperle doll theatre family has lived and performed in the village.
Halmeniemi welcomes all visitors, holiday makers and people wishing to live their life as a part of an active rural community. The village activists will do their best to find housing and offer help to those who wish to build a home in Halmeniemi. Since Halmeniemi is located within a handy distance to many growing Finnish cities (e.g. Lappeenranta, Kouvola, Mikkeli) and it is only 200 kilometres to the capital city of Helsinki. Halmeniemi provides an attractive location for starting new enterprises.
For any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us by email in Finnish, Swedish, English or German: info@halmeniemi.info
General information about Finland: Visit Finland, http://www.visitfinland.com/