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Rauland International Winter Festival 2025
The Rauland Winter Festival has its finger on the pulse of folk music. The increasingly popular festival attracts people from all over the world.
This year, river dance stars from Ireland and Estonian musicians will be performing. Among other things.
Here is the program for this year's winter festival
– This program is really swinging! says festival director Ingrid Hamberg, and wishes everyone a warm welcome to Rauland in week 7.
– We would like to convey folk music and traditional art to new audience groups in addition to those who know the environment well, she says.
As an audience member, you can actively participate in exciting courses in traditional art techniques or sweat-dripping dance floors. You can also sit quietly and watch dance and music performances, or enjoy the sight of beautiful traditional crafts.
As usual, the festival has a good finger on the pulse of folk music, and several of the entries on the program this year are artists who have made a mark in the past year, including on Folkelarm.
The folk music genre is constantly evolving, and club concepts are filling dance floors, even in urban areas, with a modern approach to traditional music. We will also experience this at the Winter Festival, among other things through the critically acclaimed concert Reolô.
In addition, there will of course also be traditional Norwegian arts such as blacksmithing, rose painting, making wooden skis, carving fish skins and braiding nettle fiber.
Highlights from the program
- Dance and lectures from Irish folk dance stars
- The dance performance Bill.Merk. Heil Ved (the production won the Folkelarmprisen in 2024).
- Dance concert with Reolô (which includes Anders Røine, winner of the Folk Musician of the Year award).
- Exhibition of student work in traditional art
- Racing and party night on Saturday
The festival director herself is an American from Seattle. Ingrid Hamberg came to Rauland 16 years ago as a result of her interest in Norwegian folk music. She has been here since then, furthering her education, and is now employed at the University of Southeast Norway campus. This year she is also steering the big ship that is the Winter Festival.
– Every year in week seven, we at the Institute for Traditional Arts and Folk Music get to play and showcase what we like best – namely folk music, folk dance and traditional art, says the festival director.
About the Winter Festival at Rauland
The festival has grown out of the Winter Competition, established in 1990, which students on the Year-long and Bachelor's degree in folk music have on their curriculum. In 2008, the competition was transformed into a festival, and since then the event has only grown in scope and attracted an increasing number of people. The Folk Music Scene at Rauland is the organizer, in collaboration with the University of Southeast Norway. The festival is a meeting place where research dissemination of folk music and traditional art is an important part of the profile.
The festival runs from Tuesday, February 11th to Sunday, February 16th.
Contact Info
Festival Director Ingrid Hamberg
email: ingrid.hamberg@usn.no
