OSLO PRIDE MARCHES ON

Oslo Pride 2016 marches on in the wake of the Orlando tragedy, with a message of solidarity and a determination to celebrate acceptance and equality. “It’s been a couple of very intense days,” Petter Ruud-Johansen, information officer for Oslo Pride 2016, said about the effect the shooting has had on the festival starting this Friday. …

PRIDE COMES TO A CLOSE

  By Amy Venn The Oslo Pride Parade broke its own record Saturday with 104 organizations, an increase of 34 from the previous record. 30,000-plus individuals participated in the march, and another 30,000-plus lined the streets of downtown Oslo, according to the newspaper Dagbladat. The 2016 Oslo Pride Festival theme was solidarity, and organizers recognized …

WASN’T IT GOOD, NORWEGIAN WOOD

BY LOGAN HARLE AND ANGIE PEREZ The festival market in Norway has increased tremendously in the past 20 years, so much that 40 percent of the population attended a festival in 2014, according to the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for Cultural Industries. One of those festivals is the annual and iconic Norwegian Wood Festival, which is …

2016 Festival Overview

BY LOGAN HARLE Norway is home to a myriad of music festivals covering all genres, from Norway’s notorious black metal scene, to pop, folk, electronic, jazz, hip hop and many more. Norway has one of the highest amounts of attendance of music festivals in the world, with over 1.8 million people who attended a festival …

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVALS REACT TO MANCHESTER ATTACK

As music festivals in Norway grow, the danger of attending a concert also rises. The Manchester bomb attack following an Ariana Grande concert killed 23 attendees and wounded many more. Festival and concert organizers in the U.K., the U.S., and Norway, which has one of the highest per capita music event attendance rates in the …

NORWEGIAN CONCERT PLANNING ORGANIZATION GIVES KIDS POWER

Rockslo, a concert association in Norway’s capital city of Oslo, introduces youth to music by immersing them in the process of planning and executing concerts. Since 2013, Rockslo has been a place for young people to work behind the scenes in the music industry. From booking to marketing to technical work to production, youth under …

SERIAL CROSSOVER ARTIST: SONDRE LERCHE INTERVIEW

(Originally published in the High Plains Reader on August 2, 2017. http://hpr1.com/index.php/feature/hpr-abroad/serial-crossover-artist-sondre-lerche-interview/) Sondre Lerche was born in Bergen on the west coast, the second largest city in Norway. He has just released his eighth album, “Pleasure” (2017). This interview took place at OverOslo, the annual music festival on a hill overlooking the Oslo harbor. HPR: …

Oslo’s bright colors reflect Pride

By Jenna Herrick Cities all over the world spend the month of June celebrating the LGBTQ community and Oslo is showing its Pride this week. According to the Visit Norway website, Oslo's first gay pride celebration – called "Gay Days" – was held in 1982; the name was changed to Oslo Pride in 2014. The Oslo …

Radio pros at Bergenfest

By Billy Ray Malone NRK P1 music reporter Hilde Zahl scanned the crowd at Bergenfest – the annual music festival in Bergen, Norway – and spotted a woman wearing a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tee shirt. Zahl walked right up to the woman, crossed her ankles, dipped into a curtsy and, without skipping …

The Most Important Part of Music Festivals May Be the Food

By Shannon Kehoe A roar of music hit the stage on a cool Saturday afternoon at Frogner Park in Oslo, Norway. Piknik i Parken or Pipfest was in full swing. Picnic tables covered with food ranging from tacos and burgers to fish and grilled cheese were surrounded by happily munching adults and running children with ice …