"An extraordinary festival in an extraordinary year."

The Bergen International Festival launches a re-imagined programme for 2020.

In six weeks time, the team has worked on an online programme to replace the original festival. From 20 May until 3 June, the festival will organise about 60 events. A number of new concerts and performances can be enjoyed online, and recordings from the two last festivals are also being made available. The online programme will be enhanced with outdoor events in the city centre.

The 2020 Bergen International Festival will begin with a grand opening concert broadcast from Bergen’s famous Grieghallen on Wednesday 20 May. The artists include the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Wardruna’s Einar Selvik, Edvard Grieg Choir, pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and violinists Ludvig Gudim and Eldbjørg Hemsing. The concert is hosted by Arild Erikstad from NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, and soprano Mari Eriksmoen.

The new festival programme is free and broadcast on the Bergen International Festival’s home page and social media. Several concerts will also be broadcast by the NRK, media outlet Bergens Tidende and other partners. The physical indoor events will not be open to the public.

 "We want this year’s festival to be a manifestation of the best Norwegian practitioners of international art. We want to give artists and cultural workers commissions, and thus help to keep the wheels in motion in our sorely tried sector. But most of all we wish to give the public the music and events they had been looking forward to, and also hope to open a window for some who have not visited the festival before," says Anders Beyer, CEO and artistic director of the festival. You can read his statement here.  

Discover now the new programme of Bergen International Festival by visiting their website and be among the first people to experience an online festival!