Bergen International Festival should not be confused with Bergen International Film Festival.
| Native Name: | Festspillene i Bergen |
| Native Name Lang: | no |
| Status: | Active |
| Genre: | Music Festival |
| Date: | May–June |
| Frequency: | Annually |
| Location: | Bergen |
| Country: | Norway |
| Years Active: | 1953– |
| First: | Founded 1952 |
| Founder Name: | Frank Meidell Falch Christen Gran Bøgh |
| Patron: | King Harald V of Norway |
Bergen International Festival (no|Festspillene i Bergen) is an annual international music and cultural festival in Bergen, Norway.[1]
In Spring 2022, Lars Petter Hagen took over as festival director.[2]
The Bergen International festival is the largest festival in the Nordic countries in its genre and has a large number of activities in music, dance, literature, visual arts, folklore, etc. The festival is held over fourteen days from the end of May to the start of June and is located in numerous places like the Grieg Hall, Haakon's Hall, Troldhaugen, Lysøen, Siljustøl as well as streets and town squares of Bergen. In the same time span the International Jazz Festival, Nattjazz, takes place in Bergen.[3]
The first festival that started on 1 June 1953, exactly 55 years after its predecessor and source of inspiration, the first music festival in Norway Edvard Grieg's Bergen Music Festival starting on the 26 June 1898.[4] The model was the Salzburg Festival, and the initiative came partly from opera singer Fanny Elstad. The original festival director was Frank Meidell Falch from 1951 to 1957.[5] Christen Gran Bøgh, who died in 1955, also played a major role in the festival's first edition.[6]
Edvard Grieg’s piano concerto in A minor is often called the signature work of the Festival, and has been performed at almost every Festival since 1953. Here are all the soloists: