Acceptance speech at the Saunamestari Guild award ceremony

Dear festival audience and organisers, honourable Saunamestarit. I'm grateful, and humbled to be here to receive this award and share the occasion with Mr Helistö, whose work is an inspiration to many.

Fifty years ago mankind landed on the Moon. Perhaps, then, someone thought, that we'd soon have saunas on the Moon. Our striving towards space has since slowed down, but in this world, appreciation for the Finnish sauna marches on. For my part, I contribute towards this vital cause from Great Britain where a few years back I started the British Sauna Society to champion authentic sauna practice and provide a community platform for UK sauna enthusiasts to connect, learn and belong.

In the last few years we've hosted meet-ups, given talks, held masterclasses, run field trips to Finland and the Baltics, certified saunas, acknowledged legitimate sauna businesses, helped bring about a new wave of public pop-up saunas across the country and shook hands with the royals. Not before long we will also have the first smoke sauna heating up in the UK. <applause>

We've also brought a piece of this festival to England – one of Mr Hakala's birch whisks hangs on the wall at Ray Stevens Academy, a premier martial arts academy in London. Ray is a former Olympic judo medallist and when he built his new academy, he insisted on having a genuine Finnish sauna there as well. He did exactly that, and we awarded him with the best crafted sauna whisk in the world. Not that anyone is allowed to use it though. <laughter>

What makes this honour even more special to me, is that almost everything that turned me into a sauna activist some fifteen years ago, I've learned from the masters of this Guild – over the years, along a journey. On the bench at Arla and Rajaportti. In the sooty, dark heat at Kuusijärvi. Travelling by coach across Russia with the International Smoke Sauna Club. Tracing the forgotten black saunas of Viena Karelia with only a hand-drawn map as a guide. Breaking and (undoubtedly) still holding the record for the longest ever sauna session at the Mooska farm.

Dear fellow sauna enthusiasts – let us look after our sauna traditions, so that coming generations and our international (or extraterrestrial) guests can have their own journeys, when they come looking for the roots.

And Wendy, I am very grateful to share this day and this quest with you. I love you! <aww>

Thank you Ikaalinen – enjoy the festival! See you on the bench!

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