Jukola Relay, live.

A light summer night of orienteering in Vuokatti

The Jukola relay, the 78th edition, and the Venla relay, the 49th, are run in Vuokatti in Sotkamo on 18 to 20 June 2027, with the competition centre in the grounds of the Vuokatti Sports Institute.

Jukola is a relay for teams from orienteering clubs and community teams, and it is run through a light Finnish summer night. The competition centre opens on Friday 18 June at 10:00, and the organisers describe it as compact, with every key function close at hand and built to work in any weather.

The Venla relay for women's teams opens the racing with a mass start at 13:30 on Saturday 19 June. It has four legs of about 6.3, 5.5, 8.3 and 8.0 km, 28.3 km in all with 980 m of climb. The Jukola relay follows with a mass start at 23:00 the same evening. Its seven legs add up to 74.3 km and 2,960 m of climb. The first four legs are shorter than in recent years, and the last three, between 12.8 and 13.8 km, are run in daylight.

The light is the story of the night. The sun sets at 23:43 on Saturday and rises again at 2:34 on Sunday, so the first legs are run at dusk rather than in true darkness. The map is printed at 1:10,000 with 5 metre contours, and the climbing adds up quickly, with 570 m on the fifth leg alone.

For spectators, admission is free throughout the event and the competition centre is open to everyone, with shops, exhibition stands and food stalls. Finnish broadcaster Yle shows both the Venla and the Jukola relay live. Plan for a long evening and a short night, and bring warm clothes for the hours after midnight.

On Livebib, a participant can choose to share their own live position from the phone they carry, so teammates and family can follow along on the map. This is not the organiser's timing, and the official results come from Jukola.