Stavern Festival Celebrates 20 Years of Pushing the Music Festival Envelope In Norway
With Stavern Festival's massive 2022 edition just hours away, let's have a look back at the history of one of Norway’s biggest live music events.
Stavernfestivalen—as it's called in Norwegian—was launched way back in 2001, when its first iterations laid the foundation for what would eventually become one of the country's most hyped festivals.
Since its inception, Stavern took near the city of Larvik in South Norway, which is located in a key spot, reachable within less than two hours from the country’s capital of Oslo. But by 2015, the festival had well-transitioned from a small local event to a powerhouse brand. So it was time to move its location to the gigantic Larvik Golf Arena.
With this massive space still acting as the home of Stavern and its attendees over the event’s three-day duration, it welcomed roughly than 80,000 attendees in 2019, grossing over €10 million. This monumental success galvanized the largest festival owner in Norway, Sky Festivals, to fully acquire Stavern after owning 50%.