The sounds of Norway

Music festivals offer something for everyone

Tove Andersson
Oslo

Did you know that Norway has more than 120 music festivals and that about 30% of  Norwegians visited a festival last year? Many Norwegian festivals have a clear identity imprint linked to the place, the people, and the history of the place, offering unique opportunities for music lovers and travelers.

Arts and Culture Norway (formerly Arts Council Norway) was established in 1965 to administer the Norwegian Cultural Fund. Arts and Culture Norway provides annual grants for art and culture throughout the country and is a driving force for new art and cultural projects. Arts and Culture Norway manages a total of NOK 1.4 billion in state funding.

The following are highlights from three of Norway’s most popular summer music festivals this year. You may want to mark your calendar for next year—and there are more music festivals to come already  this fall.

Varangerfestivalen

This year, too, young and old packed their sunglasses and headed off to Telemark. Some traveled by bus, others on a polished motorbike, an old vintage American car, a recreational vehicle, or they simply chugged up the Telemark Canal by boat.

Varangerfestivalen, one of Norway’s oldest festivals, with joik and soul on the schedule, is also Finnmark County’s largest. This year, the Arts and Culture Norway  contributed NOK 1.5 million to the festival that takes place each year in August. The location in the east, with Finland, Russia, and Sweden as neighboring countries, is unique.

“The whole of Vadsø owns the festival, with a great degree of volunteerism and enthusiasm. This is inherited. We are the big happening during the summer in Vadsø,” says festival manager André Kvernhaug.“We feature artists from the northern regions, yes. And diversity is important to us, both when it comes to genres and artists,” he says.

The festival is known for its jazz artists, including Jan Garbarek, Mari Boine, Nils Petter Molvær, and Radka Toneff. If you have not heard “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” it is high time. Still a wind of jazz blows through  the festival with new artists, new bold sounds, as well as the famous artists and the local ones.

Midnattsrocken

In the land of the midnight sun in Fnnmark, you will also find “Midnattsrocken,” a festival that turned 40 this year. The first festival featured rekowned Sámi singer Mari Boine as its main attraction.

This festival, which claims to be the world’s northernmost outdoor music festival, uses nearly 200 volunteers to get the event off the ground. With bonfires and the location in Lakselv, it also stands out from other festivals.

“We use many Sámi words and want to promote Sámi culture. We have therefore used and use lavvoer [Sámi tents] as a backstage and changing room, in some of our logos we have a Sámi person with a horned hat, reindeer and sable on both posters and digital media. We also have reindeer on the festival grounds during parts of the year. All in all, we want to promote Sámi culture and language, says festival manager Tarjei Leine Mathiesen.

But over the years, the festival has also attracted attention for other elements, such as a tame reindeer on stage, the fact that the Soviets visited in 1987, and the sale of rubber boots and reindeer kebabs.

And again, big names were there at this year’s festival: Sámi Rolffa, Mari Boine, and Elle Maria Hætta Isaksen, and many more with a Sámi connection or identity.

Notodden

If you travel to the south of Norway, you come to the twin city of Clarksdale, Miss., Notodden, Norway’s blues town. Located in Telemark, it was once known for world-class Norwegian industry, Norwegian hydropower and foreign capital.

But when Norsk Hydro moved, 1,200 jobs were lost. One of those who lost his job was Jostein Forsberg. He became one of the initiators of the Notodden Blues Festival, and to this day, he is the leader of the festival. The  event will soon be 40 years old, with 30,000 visitors in the city on the first weekend in August,

In 2008, the city firmed up its identity as a blues city with a nearly 33-foot high harmonica microphone in a roundabout. Bok & Blueshuset with its library, cinema, recording studio, and concert hall was built in 2013. Each year, the library organizes a deep dive into the history of a selection of artists through Talkin’ Blues led by the American blues expert Art Tipaldi.

On the square is Notodden’s own “Walk of Fame.” The Bluesbyen is also included in the “Blues Trail” from Mississippi to Norway, which entails a special commitment to spreading the Mississippi culture. Young people ages 13 to 26 from all over the world can sign up for “Little Steven’s Blues School,” where the initiator, the artist and Notodden ambassador Steven Van Zandt, is often in Norway and inspires the young people who get to perform during the festival after an eventful summer camp.

“He imagined a festival in a meadow with a tent and some mud but experienced something completely different. He was charmed by the people behind the festival, by the talent, the opportunities that lay there, and he identifies with the industrial city,” says David John Smith from Norway Communicates, who brought the E Street Band guitarist to Telemark.

The big international names are represented this year with bands such as Deep Purple, Europe, The Fabulous Thunderbirds. In addition, there will be Norwegian CC Cowboys, Dance with a Stranger, Backstreet Girls, and a sea of exciting bluesy artists from home and abroad. Festival manager Jostein Forsberg became a fan of Deep Purple when he was only 12 years old.

Notably, this year, the Notodden Blues Festival Blues Award went to Art Tipaldi, a musician and teacher from Wilbraham, Mass.

With hiking boots parked outside tents,  soup being cooked, the surroundings are one part industrial history and one part blues—with the Heddal stave church from the 13th century nearby. Some of the visitors have been coming there for 35 years, about the same amount of time that Notodden has gone from being Norway’s first industrial town to the country’s most famous blues town.

Norwegian Music Festivals — Fall Schedule

9/5 : Lofoten Countryfestival — Leknes

9/6–7: Grenseløsfestivalen — Kirkenes

9/7: Hårfestefestivalen — Rennesøy

9/12–14:  Ålvik Rock — Ålvik

9/12–14:  by:Larm — Oslo

9/13: Saltenblues — Fauske

9/15–16: Spetakkel Festivalen — Larvik

9/19: Sortland Jazzfestival — Sortland

10/27: Oslo Rock Fest — Oslo

10/28–11/3: Oslo World Music Festival — Oslo

10/31– 11/2: Rakfiskfestivalen — Valdres

11/1–2: Haugaland Prog & Rock Festival — Haugesund

11/6: Bodø internasjonale orgelfestival — Bodø

11/7–11: Blues i vintermørket  —Vardø

11/14–16: Smeltedigelen — Rana

This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of  The Norwegian American.