Like I wrote in last year’s blog post for Øyafestivalen, I decided to stop working for free at music festivals, but I went back to Øyafestivalen (as the only festival) this year. If you’re only here for the photos, head this way. Being one of the biggest music festivals in Oslo with a concept I very much agree with (good balance between male and female artists, serving vegetarian food, trying to be more or less climate neutral..), I enjoy hanging out in the Tøyen park for four days in the summer. I get free food and drinks while I try to capture the atmosphere of the festival, while also getting access to the pit to photograph the bands that I like. I even tried to cosplay as an aussie (rugby shorts, blue wife beater and thongs) when Amyl and the Sniffers played on the main stage the first day, but I was sadly not noticed by any of the band members. #feelsbadman

I also get to experience some bands I haven’t seen before, and one of my favourites this year was SLOMOSA. The pyro really warmed me up.

The (my) bigges hype this year was TOMORA as I’ve been a fan of Aurora for many years, and listening to Chemical Brothers for at least twice as long. It was awesome (unless you suffer from epilepsy by looking at strobes). I think maybe a quarter of all photos were either completely black or overexposed because of all the blinking lights.

My biggest surprise was punk band Lambrini Girls from UK. The world needs more Lambrini Girls. Fuck the far right.

My biggest upset was watching Norwegian pop sensation Dagny (who I love) towards the end of the concert as I was trying to capture some fireworks. In between two songs, I could hear from another stage way across on the other side of the park Underworld start their hit “Born Trippy”, and I felt feelings of sorrow and regret for not being there instead.

..until next year.