How Norway’s Øyafestivalen Became One of Europe’s Best Music Fests: Balancing Huge Headliners With Homegrown Artists, Prioritizing Gender Parity and More

Øyafestivalen, a four-day music festival held in Tøyen Park in Oslo, has grown into one of Europe's most acclaimed events by combining major international headliners with strong support for local Norwegian talent. Founded in 1999, the festival draws around 22,000 attendees a day and is noted for its relatively intimate scale, careful attention to logistics and atmosphere, and a lineup-booking process that runs up to 17 months ahead of each event.

This year's headliners include the Cure, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Sombr and Norwegian singer Dagny, alongside acts such as Wilco, Lily Allen, Clipse, Blood Orange and Geese. Booking manager Claes Olsen highlighted that the Cure specifically requested to return before the band's planned 2029 retirement, while the festival maintains a tradition of giving the Saturday headline slot to a homegrown artist — this year Dagny, who first played a small Øya stage a decade ago and recently released her third album, "Dancefloor Erotica".