Hitchball 4000 is the largest hitchhiking race in Northern Europe. It’s a weekend-long adventure during which teams of two people hitchhike all around Finland and neighbouring countries. Its goal is to promote hitchhiking as a legitimate and ecological means of transportation and to spread values such as trust, sustainability and open-mindedness, as well as to demonstrate the safety of the Northern European societies.

The sixth edition of the race will take place in 2019 between June 14th and 16th. Competing teams will leave Helsinki on Friday 14th and hitchhike to a secret destination, where they will spend the night all together. Participants are otherwise free to travel on the route of their choice, but they will have to reach selected checkpoints of varying difficulty and value. The winners will be determined based on their time of arrival and difficulty of checkpoints selected. Each team is equipped with a GPS tracker, which enables their progress to be followed in real-time on this website. Their pictures and updates from the road are also published on this very website. 

So find yourself a team mate to build a lasting bond with and take a leap of faith to the next level. The winning team will get to decorate their home with the Hitchball 4000 Cup – to which the name of the team will be engraved – for one year. In addition to the prize for the actual race, with separate criteria, one team will be awarded with the Spirit of Hitchball award.

Hitchball 4000 was organized for the first time in Spring 2013 and it has grown steadily, attracting up to 200 participants on its latest edition. During the course of a weekend, the race has seen crazy performances such as reaching Ivalo, Stockholm, Nordkjosbotn (Norway) or Warsaw – and returning in time! Feedback from the participants has been overwhelming, many calling it one of the greatest and most eye-opening experiences of their lives. In 2017 Hitchball 4000 was part of the official program of the 100th anniversary of Finland’s independence and, drawing inspiration from the Finnish board game classic “Star of Africa”, it made participants visit important historical and cultural places in Finland and the Baltics. 

Hitch the road, Jack!