- Who
- Ice Music Festival Norway
- What
- 16:000 year(s):day(s)
- Where
- Norway ()
- When
The longest running ice music festival is the Ice Music Festival Norway (Norway), which has been held annually for 16 years since its foundation in 2006, as of February 2022.
The festival was founded by Norwegian musician Terje Isungset, who had previously been commissioned to compose and perform inside a frozen waterfall, and often experiments with different materials in creating instruments.
The concept behind the festival was to showcase music performed with instruments sculpted from glacial ice and snow. Traditionally, each year a new instrument is produced, including ice-saxophones, harps and guitars.
Ice is drilled and sawed from frozen lakes, before the blocks are delicately pulled from the surface and then carved outdoors. It takes roughly three days for two people to build an instrument. Metal is still used for some parts such as strings!
Since it's foundation, the festival has been held annually and has been hosted in multiple locations across Norway, including Finse and Bergsjøstølen. As well as being a unique music festival, the event also focuses on the climate crisis and invites lecturers to speak to crowds on climate research.
