{"id":109909,"date":"2025-09-02T20:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109909\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T20:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:18:13","slug":"852-athletes-countless-gilets-and-a-man-dressed-as-a-cathedral-how-darudes-sandstorm-inspired-a-6-7km-fun-run-dance-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109909\/","title":{"rendered":"852 athletes, countless gilets and a man dressed as a cathedral: how Darude\u2019s Sandstorm inspired a 6.7km fun run | Dance music"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 3.45pm on a Sunday in Helsinki\u2019s Kaivopuisto park and I\u2019m warming-up near a man dressed as the city\u2019s cathedral. A headdress of neoclassical domes sets the outfit off, but it\u2019s the Senate Square cathedral steps that have won him the best outfit award at the inaugural Darude Sandstorm Run<\/a>. For Daniel Erickson, who has travelled from New York especially, it\u2019s well-deserved.<\/p>\n

The Darude Sandstorm Run is a suitably silly marker of 25 years of both Finnish DJ Darude\u2019s career and the release of the music video for Sandstorm. First released in Finland<\/a> 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, Erickson and 825 others are now gearing up to run the route documented in its cops-and-robbers storyline.<\/p>\n

Sandstorm remains a staple of sporting events, is loved by sports stars \u2013 swimmer Michael Phelps used to listen to it before winning Olympic gold medals, citing the energy it gave him \u2013 and has found a constantly evolving place in internet culture, making it a platinum-seller in the UK and the US. Whether somebody is playing it on a potato<\/a> or it\u2019s being used as the sound for a sandstorm alarm in the Gobi Desert<\/a>, it\u2019s one of Finland\u2019s most recognisable pop culture exports.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The track has taken Darude, real name Toni-Ville Henrik Virtanen, around the world, playing live in over 80 countries including recent stops in Japan and Guyana. Speaking from Chicago a week prior to the run, he looks back fondly at the support Sandstorm received in the UK from DJs Pete Tong and Judge Jules. It then went to No 3 in the charts.<\/p>\n

But, he says, \u201cmy last five or 10 years of relevancy I definitely owe to gaming and the meme culture that revolves around that.\u201d The track is particularly popular with players of online multiplayer battle arena game League of Legends; \u201cDarude \u2013 Sandstorm\u201d is now a stock response to anyone requesting a track ID on gaming streams.<\/p>\n

Beyond the track\u2019s infernal catchiness, it\u2019s not clear why Sandstorm took off as a soundtrack of choice among Call of Duty streamers in the late 00s, but its use snowballed as internet culture developed and the US EDM boom hit. YouTube putting a Darude button on its player for April Fools\u2019 Day in 2015, which added a second of Sandstorm to any video on its site, cemented its meme legacy. I get the sense Darude is conflicted by his song\u2019s strange legacy: \u201cMy crowd has gotten younger, which is obviously key to my ongoing career,\u201d he says pragmatically. \u201cBut also, I\u2019ve met people in their 40s or 50s at my shows with their 18-year-old kids. It\u2019s really cool when someone young comes over and says: \u2018I was five or six when my mom and dad played your stuff in the car. Now I\u2019m here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in Helsinki, people from 17 countries have amassed for our 6.7km run. We are encouraged to take pictures matching images from a free locations booklet along the way and Darude has curated a special playlist for the event on Spotify (spoiler: it\u2019s Sandstorm on repeat). Some runners are clad in gilets and carrying silver briefcases in honour of the video.<\/p>\n

There is a brief moment 30 seconds after the start where I think I could possibly win, but then the downhill past the Kaivopuisto fence makes way for the slightest of climbs and my pace drops to a painful crawl across the city\u2019s cobbled streets. I try to picture a young Darude along the way, clad in those wraparound glasses, doing that crouched pose.<\/p>\n

No escaping it \u2026 runners pose in costume. Photograph: Tom Little\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cI had very little to do with the music video, but it was an awesome experience,\u201d Darude tells me, adding that director Juuso Syrj\u00e4 would go on to direct various Nordic noir shows, including Netflix\u2019s Border Town. \u201cThere were so many cool people that pulled together for the video and the follow-up ones, and so many of us had actual careers come out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has the air of a man who\u2019d quite like to be known for more than one hit, but who has also made his peace with the fact that he probably won\u2019t be. \u201cSandstorm has life of its own, and it\u2019s bigger than me,\u201d he says. \u201cBut if people know Sandstorm, I just hope they come and see me live somewhere. I can show them what I do. I\u2019m there partying with them \u2013 that\u2019s when I\u2019m at my happiest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back at the park I arrive very much not in first place at a rapturous finish line, soundtracked by Darude himself on the decks, selflessly lifting, dropping and remixing the track for an entire hour so that everyone can experience their own unique piece of Sandstorm history. A queue forms for merch signing and one by one Darude politely signs everything given to him. \u201cLet\u2019s have a break from the dududus,\u201d he says to the crowd, thanking them for coming before playing some music that isn\u2019t Sandstorm.<\/p>\n

Darude plays a 25th anniversary concert at Kattilahalli, Helsinki<\/a>, 6 September<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s 3.45pm on a Sunday in Helsinki\u2019s Kaivopuisto park and I\u2019m warming-up near a man dressed as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-109909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}