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On Top Of The World: How a Group of Norwegian School Friends Created One of Europe’s Finest Boutique Festivals
Billboard's Lars Brandle travelled to Norway's Bergtatt Festival for its 2026 edition, profiling how a small camping festival on a remote fjord in Luster, Western Norway, has grown into one of Europe's most acclaimed boutique events. Founded by a group of school friends from Oslo, the festival stands out for being run entirely as a labour of love rather than a commercial venture, with organisers holding down separate day jobs and pouring proportionally large budgets into booking acts simply because they enjoy doing it.
The festival was founded in 2018 and first held in 2019, led by six co-founders—Oskar Skulberg, Anders Mageli, Nicolai Frantzen, Johan Stang, Ole Kristian Knudsen and Aksel Mjøen—each overseeing a distinct area such as booking, community, creative direction and operations. It welcomes roughly 1,500 guests, including around 1,000 ticket-buyers, and sells out quickly each year; this year's edition featured 30 booked acts across 30 events, supported by about 30 core unpaid volunteers whose numbers swell to 150 during the event itself. The festival survived two pandemic-era cancellations and the departure of a founding member, and takes place on the first weekend of July, opening with a mass hike into the mountains surrounding the Sognefjorden.
In short
- Norwegian friends built Bergtatt into a top European boutique festival
- Held on a remote fjord, sells out ~1,500 guests yearly
- Run as a volunteer-powered hobby, not a commercial enterprise
Explained simply
Bergtatt Festival is a music festival held on the first weekend of July in Luster, a remote area of Western Norway on the Sognefjorden. Founded in 2018 and first held in 2019, the festival welcomes roughly 1,500 guests annually and has become one of Europe's most acclaimed boutique music events, remarkable for operating entirely outside the commercial model typical of larger festivals.
The festival is run by six school friends from Oslo—Oskar Skulberg, Anders Mageli, Nicolai Frantzen, Johan Stang, Ole Kristian Knudsen and Aksel Mjøen—each overseeing a distinct area of operations from booking to community engagement. The founders maintain separate day jobs whilst operating the festival purely as a labour of love, investing proportionally large budgets into booking acts simply because they enjoy doing so rather than to maximise profit.
The festival is sustained by approximately 30 core unpaid volunteers, with numbers growing to around 150 during the event itself. Despite surviving pandemic-era cancellations and the departure of one founding member, the event remains in high demand and sells out annually, with each festival beginning with a communal mass hike into the surrounding mountains.