What's on in Norway: Six fantastic things to look forward to in May 2025
Trondheim Jazz
Trondheim Jazz features acts from Europe and the Nordics, as well as lectures on the art of jazz. The festival will take place between May 8th and May 12th.
The various concerts will take place at several venues across Norway's former Viking capital. Therefore, it's worth checking out the
programme
to see who is playing where.
Trondheim Jazz Festival has existed in various forms and under several different names since 1980.
MaiJazz
Running almost alongside Trondheim Jazz will be
MaiJazz
in Stavanger, which will take place between May 6th and May 10th.
The festival started in 1989 and has grown into one of the country's most well-known jazz festivals, so if you are on the west coast – it's worth checking out.
There will be several free and paid-for concerts. Jazz lovers will also be able to pay 1,700 kroner for a festival pass.
Bergen international festival
A mammoth 14-day festival between May 21st and June 4th is the
Bergen International Festival
, which is one of the country's oldest cultural gatherings.
The festival usually offers visitors a blend of theatre, dance, music, opera, and visual art, showcasing both Norwegian and international talent.
Each year, the Bergen International Festival captivates audiences with hundreds of live performances staged both indoors and outdoors.
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Last chance to catch exhibitions
Early May will be the last chance to visit the Georg Baselitz Feet First exhibition at the Munch Museum.
The works of the confrontational and internationally renowned artist feature large upside-down paintings, his reflections on the fragments of post-war Germany and his admiration of Edvard Munch.
More than 80 works are displayed. Baselitz has established himself as one of the biggest names on the global contemporary art scene.
Meanwhile, the exhibition
Hertervig
– Hill. Dream and Reality will come to a close at Stavanger Art Museum on May 18th.
The exhibition is centred on Norwegian Lars Hertervig and Swede Carl Fredrik Hill.
May 17th and other public holidays
May 17th is the country's national day and is a fantastic occasion in Norway. People nationwide will be decked out in their national costumes and attend parades with marching bands.
Oslo is set to have the largest parade, which makes its way up Karl Johan Street to the Royal Palace. Meanwhile, Bergen puts its own local spin on the annual traditions.
The day is a public holiday, meaning that almost all stores and businesses will be closed for the day.
The only downside to May 17th this year is that it falls on a Saturday, meaning workers won't receive the day off like they would if it was a weekday.
May 1st is Labour Day, so it will be a day off work for most workers in Norway. Meanwhile, Thursday, May 29th, is Ascension Day, which should also mean a day off.
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If you haven't considered it already, it might be worth booking off the Friday, which is an inneklemt dag (meaning squeezed day).
Concerts and shows
Many of you will unfortunately have to miss out on some of these events as tickets may be hard to come by currently.
Tyler, The Creator has a sold-out show at Oslo Spektrum on May 6th, while The Lumineers will perform at the same venue on May 11th.
A few days later, Robert Plant (legendary lead singer of Led Zeppelin) will perform at Folketeateret in Oslo, with a handful of tickets still available at the time of writing.
Finally, Canadian comedian Russel Peters will perform shows in Oslo and Bergen in early May.
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- Local Norway
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"It sounds cheesy," he said, "but I wept a lot making this film because I was so moved by the actors" playing members of an arty family in Oslo who cannot talk to each other despite all their supposed sophistication. "The actors are my friends. I know that they were being halfway a character and halfway themselves. And that they were also dealing with stuff," said the maker of "The Worst Person in the World", which landed the Norwegian two Oscar nominations and won newcomer Renate Reinsve the best actress award at Cannes in 2021. Many critics that year said it also should have won the Palme d'Or top prize. "We were a family too," said Trier, rehearsing his script around the kitchen table of the beautiful old wooden home in Oslo where the film was shot, itself a character in the film. The heads that keep butting in Trier's on-screen family are the absent father, an arthouse filmmaker who has long been put out to grass, played by Swedish legend Stellan Skarsgard, and his stage actress daughter (Reinsve). "I think a lot of families carry woundedness and grief," Trier said. "And talk often doesn't help. It gets argumentative. We get stuck in our positions, the roles we give each other unconsciously." Elle Fanning a 'mensch' The bad old dynamics are changed by the arrival of Hollywood star -- Elle Fanning playing someone only millimetres from her real self -- a fan of the father, who comes bearing lots of Netflix dollars to revive one of his long-stalled scripts. "We don't get too many Hollywood stars wanting to be in small Norwegian-language films," Trier joked. But just like her character in the film, Fanning got the part through complete fandom, flying to Oslo between shooting the Bob Dylan biopic, "A Complete Unknown", and the new "Predator" in New Zealand. Advertisement "I am a massive fan" of Trier, she told AFP in Cannes, where the film is in the running for the Palme d'Or. "I think 'The Worst Person in the World' is easily one of the best films in the last decade or even longer. It is just perfect." "When Joachim sent me the script I read it and I was just crying and crying by the final page. It is so emotional," Fanning added. "It's a very personal piece for Joachim and you can just feel that rawness in it." Advertisement Trier -- who comes from a family steeped in the Scandinavian film industry -- admitted it is all very "meta. You're making a film about a family with your filmmaking family. And you've got a meta Hollywood star." But they are not that many parallels with his biological family. "It's not like I'm throwing anyone under the bus. My whole family has actually seen the film and are very supportive," he said. The filmmaker father, he insisted, is a mash-up of great auteurs such as Ingmar Bergman, Krzysztof Kieslowski and John Cassavetes. Trier, 51, is famous for the bond he builds with his actors and he praised Fanning as the latest member of the family. "She is a real mensch -- a really kind and collaborative, cool person," he said. -Trier 'magic' The "magic" that Fanning said Trier creates on set comes from taking your time, he told AFP, taking on the big themes with a light, humorous touch. "Anyone who's had experience of therapy -- and I have -- will know that it's about the silences and letting things arrive. Very often is also the case with actors," said Trier. "We had quite a few moments like that in the film actually. Renate would look at me and I look at her and I say, 'What was that? That was interesting.' And we don't talk about it anymore. "But when people see it in editing, they go, 'Wow!'"
