Northern Might: Norway market report

Bergen boy Kygo’s hour-long set to launch his fifth album this summer – a live performance on a dizzying outcrop of rock in front of the Hardangerfjord, with a helicopter-delivered Steinway, Sigrid, and a string section – distilled a certain stereotypical picture of Norway: heart-stopping scenery, healthy-looking people, yearning songcraft, generous budgets.

If the first three of those are dependably true, the last is a bit more moot these days. Norway has always had plenty of spending power, its oil wealth making it one of the wealthier countries in the world. But in recent years, the macroeconomic pendulum has swung the other way. The Norwegian krone is at a historic low in 2024, effectively running at a 30% discount compared to a decade ago.

That’s good news for tourists but bad news for promoters, who have traditionally enticed a deluxe range of talent to a gloriously pretty but out-of-the-way northern European country of around 5.5m people.

“Things are changing in the Nordics, and the discrepancy between the currencies is quite visible,” says Erik Egenes, acting general manager of Oslo’s by:Larm festival and conference. “The Danish krone is very strong compared to the Swedish [krone] and especially the Norwegian [krone]. It is not easy to book international acts when the costs are 20% higher compared to last year.”

The odd part of Norway’s predicament is that its economy remains strong. But with nervous global investors seeking bigger, safer currencies, local interest rates low, and oil losing ground against renewable energy, the krone doesn’t buy as much talent as it once did – especially given that Norway isn’t necessarily a useful stop on the way to anywhere else.

“The festivals and the events that attract a younger audience were struggling this year”

“Some of the big acts are only doing one city in Scandinavia now,” says Egenes. “And even in the 1,000-cap venues, a lot of touring acts can’t justify coming for the fees Oslo provides.”

Like almost any market you might name, the big acts remain more popular than ever on Norway’s larger stages – hence shows such as Bruce Springsteen’s visit to Bergen in July (to follow two huge Oslo shows the summer before) and Ed Sheeran’s two-night stand at Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadion next year, which is due to set a new stadium record, with 36,000 fans signed up for each night.

Meanwhile, festivals such as Superstruct’s Øya, Live Nation’s Tons of Rock, and the independent OverOslo, while not immune from painful costs, were among the winners in a country of many, many festivals.

Yet, there is a frustrating unpredictability about much of the market that promoters elsewhere will recognise. “The big acts sell the tickets, no matter what time of year or where you are, but the festivals and the events that attract a younger audience were struggling this year,” says Live Nation Norway managing director Martin Nielsen.

“A lot of the festivals did much worse than they have previously done.”

“Norwegian artists were almost seen as second-class filler, just to fill the gaps between international acts, and that’s changed”

One consequence is the emergence of a wave of Norwegian talent that can now be found selling out arenas that were almost exclusively reserved for international acts no more than a decade ago.

Local dance-pop giant Kygo is comfortably Norway’s biggest star, and though he’ll be at the Unity Arena near Oslo and Trondheim Spektrum in November, he’ll fill any Norwegian venue having previously sold out the Ullevaal in 2022.

Meanwhile, Alan Walker, Girl In Red, Aurora, Sigrid, and the evergreen A-ha all wield significant international and domestic clout, while Susanne Sundfør, merely a critical favourite abroad, has latterly become a festival and arena headliner at home, with two shows at Spektrum in September.

“Norwegian artists were almost seen as second-class filler, just to fill the gaps between international acts, and that’s changed,” says long-serving promoter Peer Osmundsvaag, founder of PiPfest, formerly of Atomic Soul and the local branch of All Things Live.

“The quality has improved, the management has improved, they’ve become more professionalised, and they’re delivering really good shows.”

Where Norway is concerned, while it may be small, it isn’t necessarily straightforward

While international eyes generally turn to Oslo, in reality, Norway is a remarkably geographically diffuse place, and cities such as Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, and Tromsø all operate as markets – and talent hubs – in their own right, given their remoteness from the capital and from each other.

“I’m in Bergen right now, which is a seven-hour drive from Oslo,” says Egenes. “Then you have Trondheim, which is a seven-hour drive in a different direction, and Stavanger, which is eight hours in another direction.”

Tromsø in the far north, meanwhile, is further from Oslo than Oslo is from Paris. So, where Norway is concerned, while it may be small, it isn’t necessarily straightforward.

Promoters
Oslo’s promoting lineup holds few surprises for observers of the Scandinavian – or broader European – business, with Live Nation, FKP Scorpio, All Things Live, and Øya owner Superstruct all much in evidence, alongside a smattering of independents.

Live Nation Norway brings a steady lineup of international stars, as well as festivals including Tons of Rock and Neon in Trondheim. In 2020, it acquired Bergen Live, which has consistently drawn megastars to the second city among the fjords of western Norway, its visitors including The Stones, Metallica, and Coldplay, in addition to Springsteen this summer.

“People’s margins are still as bad as they were this year; there’s no positive signs from the banks or any better interest rates”

“That was the biggest show in the history of the western part of Norway,” says Nielsen. “We had 45,000, and Bergen’s not a big city – about 290,000 people, 470,000 in the broader region. A lot of people travelled in, but still, that’s a big one.”

Nielsen isn’t sure whether the market just had a cold in 2024, or something more long-lasting, but he says the signs for next year are currently heartening.

“We will do well in ’25 – that’s my feeling,” he says. “So far, for next year, we’ve gone out with Justin Timberlake, which is a big name, and I’ve placed him in Trondheim [at the EC Dahls Arena], where he’s never been, and it’s selling very well.

“I’ve booked Imagine Dragons for Neon Festival, which is obviously the biggest headliner Neon has had, and it’s the only festival that Imagine Dragons is doing on their European tour, so not unexpectedly, that’s also doing quite well. We have gone on sale with a lot of shows recently and almost all have performed well or very well. Teddy Swims for example played Rockefeller (1,300-cap) in May this year, and now he has sold out Oslo Spektrum for his show in February, which is nothing but amazing.

“People’s margins are still as bad as they were this year; there’s no positive signs from the banks or any better interest rates. So maybe it’s because the summer is over, and people are happy to look forward to something else, but it’s just a feeling I’ve got, from the announcements we’ve had, that ’25 is going to be good.”

“Domestic artists are doing very well”

All Things Live Norway, launched on the foundations of Friction and Atomic Soul Booking at the time of the initial Waterland-backed roll-up in 2018, has continued to bulk up in the ensuing years. It added Bergen-based management, booking, and promoting group Stageway in 2022 and acquired Oslo-based festival specialist HES last year.

Like others, Gry Mølleskog, CEO of both the group and its Norway operation, notes the strength and diversity of Norwegian artists in today’s market. On top of incomers such as Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds at Spektrum, recent All Things Live shows have included Girl In Red and Sundfør at the same arena – as well as 30th anniversary-celebrating local hip-hoppers Klovner I Kamp in the hilly Torshovdalen park in Oslo in August.

“Domestic artists are doing very well,” says Mølleskog. “We have just sold 75,000 tickets for Åge Aleksandersen in Trondheim [at Lerkendal Stadion] next year. He is a legend – the whole of Norway loves him so much, and he is also playing big outdoor shows in several cities, including Oslo [Voldsløkka] and Bergen [Bergenhus Fortress].

“Two popular solo artists, Ingebjørg Bratland and Odd Nordstoga, have also joined forces again and played 120 concerts in Norway in the past year. They have just announced a Christmas tour, which is also selling out.

“And Mari Boine – she is a Sámi singer, she is 67 years old, and people are just amazed by her voice. She has toured all over Norway this year, and she had three shows at the Opera House in Oslo in October. She is really incredible.”

“We see [our independence] as a little bit of an advantage”

FKP Scorpio, established in Norway in 2018 – and integrating Oslo-based booking agency Nordic Live in 2020 – has plenty of shows on the schedule, ranging from Nils Frahm and Gabrielle at Spektrum and Hans Zimmer at the Unity Arena in 2026 to numerous smaller local and international acts. But Sheeran next summer represents a peak.

“Ticket sales have been fantastic and setting new records at Ullevaal Stadium,” Stian Pride, the company’s head promoter in Norway, tells IQ’s forthcoming Global Promoters Report. “And it’s definitely our high-water mark, too – we’re extremely grateful to get the opportunity to present this singular artist in Norway.”

In such a consolidated environment, big-hitting independent promoters are rare, though one of those, Sky Agency – which balances artist shows with a bulging festival portfolio, as well as a management stable and a label – isn’t sure that’s a drawback.

“We see [our independence] as a little bit of an advantage,” says Trond Opsahl, Sky Agency CEO and co-founder. “We own our own company, and we work 24-7 to make it a success. If it goes the wrong way, it’s our own money, so we really need to be on top of it.”

Opsahl was speaking a day or two after a local Sky act, production and DJ duo Broiler, had sold out the Unity Arena for next March. “25,000 tickets in less than eight minutes,” says Opsahl. “We sold out Spektrum earlier this year in three minutes – that’s 10,000 tickets – so we knew they were really popular, but you never quite know how things are going to go.”

With All Things Live, Peer Osmundsvaag oversaw the two largest ticketed live music events in Norway’s history – Eminem at Oslo’s Voldsløkka, which drew 55,000 people in 2018, and Rammstein, who pulled 60,000 fans to Bjerke Travbane horse track in 2022.

He has been independent again since leaving ATL in July, and frankly recommends it, though he is keeping quiet about future plans beyond PiPfest. “Independence should almost be something that everyone in the industry has to do every three years for six months,” he says. “Being on the outside, being in the trenches, does sharpen the senses and makes you search a little harder for the truth, be it ticket pricing or just questioning the things you would usually do.”

Part two of the Norway market report will be published in the coming days.

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