Nothing Petty About Norwegian Wood

Sold-out shows from Tom Petty & The Heatrbreakers and Sting helped Norwegian Wood record one of its best average daily turnouts in many years.

It seems the trick is to run two houses on the first two days. They both start with Youngwood, a special festival for schools and youth in the Oslo area, which runs between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. It pulled 6,000 per day.

That leaves organisers three hours to clear away the production and ready the natural arena at the city’s Frognerbadet Park for the arrival of the grown-ups at 5 p.m.

Shows headlined by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Sting both sold out and the other two nights weren’t far short of the 9,000-capacity.

“These figures must be some of the best in our history,” said Norwegian Wood chief Jørgen Roll.

One of the main reasons Norwegian Wood doesn’t sell out on a regular basis is the weather. The four-day passes usually go quite quickly, but the sale of daily passes can depend on whether it’s raining, which is common at the festival.

“The weather could have been better, but it wasn’t as bad as the weatherman predicted,” Roll explained. “We don’t have summers over here. We have 10 months of winter and then two months of bad skiing.”

The Norwegian Wood lineup June 14-17, which was booked by Live Nation’s Norwegian office, also included Bryan Ferry, Lenny Kravitz, James Morrison, The Gaslight Anthem, and Linnea Dale.