Oya Says Bye To Middelalderparken

Promoter Claes Olsen reckons this year’s edition was the “best ever” in a 15-year history that’s seen it become the country’s biggest festival.

There were 16,000 per day at Oslo’s Middelalderparken, but the restrictions on the site have meant Olsen has spent a year looking for a new home for his festival.

“We can’t dig into the ground or sink posts into it,” he explained. Part of the Middelalderparken (or “medieval park”) is an ancient burial ground and the local authority is worried about disturbing the skeletons.

The new site is at Tøyenparken, which is almost twice the size and only a 15-minute walk from Middelalderparken, although Olsen has no immediate plans to up the festival’s capacity.

“I think that first we should get used to the new site and give people a little more space,” he told Pollstar. The acts trying not to wake the dead Aug. 6-10 included Blur, The Knife, Slayer, James Blake, Tame Impala, and Alabama Shakes.