Førdefestivalen releases the entire program for the anniversary festival in 2019.

Førdefestivalen celebrating 30 years of reunion and diversity

Garifuna rhythms from Belize, Cajun from Louisiana, duduk tones from Armenia, a dose of Russian madness, fado from Portugal, Balkan wind lessons, washboard lessons with a Cajun queen, Scottish reels and Swedish-Norwegian party music - there's a lot of musical diversity when Førdefestivalen celebrates its first 30! -30 years without borders! is the theme for the year, and the program offers many nice reunions, but also meetings with new exciting artists , says Per Idar Almås. On Thursday, April 4, he released his first program as director of Førdefestivalen .

RURA

Festival in five municipalities
Førdefestivalen invites you to concerts in five municipalities this year. -It's incredibly great to be able to be present in our neighboring municipalities, says Almås, and reveals that Haavebua in Florø will be visited by RURA , one of the most sought-after folk music groups in Scotland. At Gloppen Hotel there will be real Cajun music with Sarah Savoy Trio . Jakob Sande-tunet in Fjaler will be the perfect setting for northern Norwegian songs with Fotefar & Julie Alapnes , and in Jølster the festival offers acoustic meetings in the idyllic Jølstra Museum in addition to an exclusive concert with Hemsing/Larsen To Damer To Herrer in the barn at Fjordamattunet.  

'NEW' Saturday
On Saturday, the festival will be organizing a morning concert at Hafstadfjellet for the first time, and instead of a festival breakfast, this year there will be a festival brunch in the park. - Førdefestivalen wants to invest more in the beautiful arena at Festplassen, says Almås, who would like to welcome you to a two-hour festival brunch in the park, with food, concerts and a market in collaboration with the Norwegian Master Chefs' Guild Sogn og Fjordane and Rekoringen Førde . Later in the day, there will be a reunion with Russian Otava Yo who have had enormous international success since they were here in 2015. They are also stars on YouTube, with almost 24 million views on their most popular music video. This year you will also get to experience them with dancers in a spectacular 'log battle'.

CROUCH

Popular reunions
This year, many loyal audience members will get to experience some of their favorite musicians in Førde . The Polish favorites in Kroke , who are also visited by Mongolian URNA on stage. The Swedish-Norwegian party band SVER , which is better than ever. You can hear the accordion virtuosos in Samurai accordion again, and Swedish Triakel is coming. Not least, the audience gets to experience the Hungarian legends, Muzsikas again Førde , and the Iranian sisters Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat, who are responsible for the popular church concert. -And finally we have managed to get El Tanbura from Egypt back on the festival poster, says event manager Sølvi Lien , who are betting that the great veteran musicians will be able to melt the audience in the same way they did at the midnight concert on the riverbank more than ten years ago. 

News from near and far
-The excitement of the festival program in Førde , is that so many of the artists have not played in Norway before, and are therefore unknown here, despite being big both in their home countries and internationally, says Almås, who also mentions that many of the artists the festival presents are on the rise, and may reach their peak a few years after they played in Førde . There is some indication that SARA CORREIA , who has a concert on Friday, July 5th in Førde , will become the new big fado star.

The Garifuna Collective

Other new names in Førde are The Garifuna Collective and Dizu Plaatjies & Ibuyambo, both of whom will be playing at the dance party on Saturday night. The former have saved Garifuna music in Belize from extinction, and bring irresistible Caribbean rhythms, while the latter serve up catchy music from South Africa.

Two new productions
The focus on new productions at the festival continues. -It is incredibly great that we can follow up the fine Arvesølvet collaboration in 2017 with a new concert in the anniversary year, says Synnøve S. Bjørset at the County Archives of Sogn og Fjordane. This year , Marita Vårdal Igelkjøn, Britt Pernille Frøholm, Helge Sunde and Viljar Losnegård will go on a treasure hunt among 16,000 audio recordings in the folk music archive. The four will present old material, but also be inspired to make new music. This year's concert has been titled Pearls of Antiquity.

In a new production for children, The Strange Dragon , Gro Marie Svidal, Hildegunn Hovde and Silje Risdal Liahagen tackle the many exciting myths that have existed around the dragon since ancient times. -We combine traditional melody playing with newly written music, improvisation and electronics, says Svidal, who is happy to invite children young and old into an exciting dragon cave of rhythms and movements. 

Timples and other small guitars

Folk music instruments in all shapes
A folk music festival is also an opportunity to study a wide range of folk music instruments. Timple is, for example, the Canary Islands' version of the ukulele from Hawaii, the cavaquinho from Portugal and Brazil, the charango from the Andes and the quatro from Venezuela, and all of these are represented when the timple master Germán Lopez and his musicians from the Canary Islands come with the concert: Timples and other small guitars.

Norayr Kartashyan

In Armenia, woodwind instruments are the norm. From here, the festival picks up the woodwind phenomenon Norayr Kartashyan . In the project Menua, he brings with him five young musicians and a modern version of beautiful and timeless folk music on the national instrument duduk and other wind instruments that he himself has created. Ross Daly is the Irishman who fell in love with the Greek lyre, and made a Greek of himself. Daly has studied folk music all over the world, but especially in the Middle East. For him, music is more than a livelihood: Music is my language in the dialogue with what I experience as sacred.

Photo exhibition to be held during the festival
Two people who are particularly fascinated by all the beautiful instruments and musicians coming to the festival are photographers Oddleiv Apneseth and Andreas Eikeseth Nygjerd . This year they will be creating a photo exhibition during the festival where they will portray musicians and their instruments. -We have had the idea for the photo exhibition for a few years, say the two photographers, who will produce four large-format portraits each day that will be mounted in Førdehuset The exhibition is titled: Artists and Instruments - a Photo Project, and will open on Thursday, July 4th.