SPECIAL EVENTS IN VARDØ

Local events throughout the year

MARCH

YUKIGASSEN

Yukigassen is a snowball game from Sobetsu in Japan. This winter sport was developed in the mid-1980s and is today a major sport in parts of Japan where it is winter and snow. The game was presented to the locals in 1996, and the first championship in Vardø was organised in 1997. Yukigassen has come to Vardø and Norway to stay. Yukigassen Norway in Vardø has the exclusive right to develop and market this sport in Norway, and the game is now on tour to other places in Norway to show it off. Yukigassen is as much a winter festival as a competition. The whole city, including children and adolescents, marks that it is Yukigassen. Concerts and other cultural events are also taking place in different places in the city.

GULLFEST

Gullfest is an annual Arctic bird festival in Varanger / Arctic Norway, set up by Biotope, which is based in Vardø. During this 4 day event, inspiring people from the international bird environment (from BBC movie folks to famous nature artists) are invited. Gullfest is about displaying the rich and unique birdlife Varanger has to offer, while focusing on global conservation, bird identification, bird art and much more. Gullfest helps to give Vardø and Varanger international recognition a birder’s number 1 destination in the Arctic. Gullfest has a great mix of international bird experts who meet locals for conversations, exhibitions, tours, bird watching and much more.

JULY

POMORFESTIVAL

Last week in July every year since the 90's

We organise the Pomor Festival to commemorate the pomoric history and to maintain friendship with Russia. For 5 days, the city is filled with different events for young and old. Concerts, art exhibitions, sales stalls, bouncy castle for the kids and much more. This is the festival in which Vardø folk who have moved elsewhere come home to be with family. So this is a festival of memory and laughter. Pomortrade has been very important for the infrastructure in Vardø and not least in anchoring the city’s place in history. The Norwegian-Russian trade has been an important contribution to the maintenance and formation of Vardø's city status and, not least, identity.

Pomorfestival.no

NOVEMBER

BLUESFESTIVAL “in the winter darkness”

the second week in November every year.

Ever since 1997 this festival has developed and has become an annual big happening. To mark the darkest time of the year, Vardø bustles for 4 days with good music, a good mood and various cultural features throughout the city. In the evening, there is music in the centre. At Vardø's best and most cozy scene, Scene Nordpol (Nordpol Kro), the stage at Vardø Hotel and the hall at Vardø cultural house will be used during the festival. Having the festival in November was chosen because the whole island is coloured blue because of the contrast between light and dark. This is typical of the Arctic climate zone.