Stavanger Events

Literally, the ‘Happy Food Festival’ is a celebration of all things gastronomic. The emphasis is not on haute cuisine, but on connecting the consumer and the (small) producer. There’s a strong focal point on local and seasonal produce too. The festival attracts over 250,0000 visitors a year, a prodigious crowd in small town Norway.

This is Stavanger’s premier classical music festival, featuring concerts in a variety of locations in and around the city centre, though the most atmospheric venue is the Cathedral. Grieg and Beethoven are favourites, but there’s space on the programme for contemporary composers too.

Devoted to electronic music of many descriptions, this is one of Stavanger’s busiest festivals, attracting an international crew. Highlighting 2011 are the illustrious Grandmaster Flash and Steve Reich.

The well-established Stavanger International Festival of Literature and Freedom of Speech draws its contributors from far and wide and, although most of the lectures and readings are in Norwegian, a fair number are in English. Each year Kapittel has a theme – in 2010 it was Memory.

Student knees-up with concerts, gigs, plays and parties concentrated at the student venue of Folken, but spreading out to other places as well. Particularly good for catching early sightings of up-and-coming Norwegian bands and balladeers.

Traditionally, Norwegians drink beer and spirits, but an increasing number have taken a liking to wine. One of the results is the Stavanger Wine Festival in which around 20 of the city’s bars, cafés and restaurants offer tastings from an international range of vintages.

Popular music festival covering most of the musical bases from house to heavy metal, punk to pop. Showcases bands from far and wide – Belgium, Latvia, Russia, Sweden, the US and the UK have all been represented in recent years. Geared up for late teens in particular.

One of the city’s leading festivals, MaiJazz attracts top-ranking performers from home and away, as it has done for the last 20 years. Performances are scheduled across the city in a variety of venues. Every sort of jazz is catered for from trad to progressive.