International Wooden Boat Festival
Risor
As many as 100 wooden boats line the harbor at Risur. You can marvel at the spectacle from the shore or you can go on board and inspect the traditional workmanship that has been used to construct these magnificent vessels.

Oslo Chamber Music Festival
Oslo
One of Norway's major music festivals returns to brighten those lazy, hazy late-summer days for classical music lovers throughout the country. Highlights of the program this year include a complete performance of Feldman's 6-hour string quartet (only ever performed in New York in its entirety) by the American 'FLUX Quartet'.

Oslo Ibsen Festival
Oslo
Experience Norway's greatest playwright on his native soil! After oil and salmon, Ibsen is probably Norway's most substantial export. His plays have been translated into many languages, and include classics such as Hedda Gabler, Peer Gynt and A Doll's House.

International Guitar Festival
Bergen
An international guitar festival will bring Beatles-lovers to Norway as guitarists from a wide range of traditions come together for a strum! Musicians from Prague, Finland, France and Germany will give four concerts in Bergen.

International Arts Festival
Bergen
This is a collection of festivals rolled into one, with a month of quality films from all over the world comprising the International Film Festival, the Octoberdance Festival offering international and Norwegian dance performances, 'Flazz' - several days of jazz to enjoy, as well as a literary festival with readings, presentations by writers and literary get-togethers.

Christmas
Norway
Preparations begin weeks before the festival season. The special Christmas beer, Juleol, is brewed; traditional dishes are prepared; cakes, biscuits, cookies, are baked together with the julekake, the sweet Christmas bread filled with raisins, candied peel and cardamom. Christmas celebration itself begins with the solemn reading of the gospel for Christmas Day, perhaps from a family Bible that is several hundred years old. As soon as the mass ends, the family sits down for a traditional meal, prepared before mass. Children, takes this special moment to exchange gifts.