In its 20+ year history, Norway’s Øya Festival has earned an enviable reputation as one of Europe’s very best festivals. Featuring a world class line-up with a progressive 50/50 split of male and female artists, and regularly praised as the world’s greenest event, Øya makes a long-awaited return after a two-year absence to Oslo’s beautiful Tøyenparken from 9th - 13th August 2022.
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS AND AURORA
JARV IS (UK)
MICHAEL KIWANUKA (UK)
BIKINI KILL (US)
SUEDE (UK)
PA SALIEU (UK), BEABADOOBEE (UK), YARD ACT (UK), Q (US), DAGNY (NO), EMILIE NICOLAS (NO), BRIGHT EYES (US), PRINCESS NOKIA (US), KVELERTAK (NO), THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE ZUGLY (NO), TØYEN HOLDING (NO), MUSTI (NO), MOLCHAT DOMA (BY), COMBOS (NO), METTESEN (NO) AND HANNAH STORM (NO)
Confirmed to headline on Thursday 9th August is the inimitable Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Sure to bring a striking ambience as darkness falls on the site, Øya will be their first show in Oslo for five years, and their only Norwegian concert in 2022.
The Saturday will be headlined by one of Norway’s biggest modern pop artists in the shape of Aurora, who is building towards the release of her eagerly anticipated new studio album ‘The Gods We Can Touch’ on January 21st. Aurora’s long connection with Øya dates back to 2014, when she played one of her very first festival sets. She has since forged a global reputation as a singer, songwriter and producer, and has amassed over 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify, 2.6 billion total streams, and over a million album sales.
Øya Festival 2022 also features the opportunity to see some of the world’s most acclaimed artists in an intimate environment. Legendary Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker will play one of his first shows with Jarv Is after the band released their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Beyond The Pale’ in 2020.
Michael Kiwanuka will also perform, his huge acclaim and popularity reaching new heights after winning the Mercury Prize for his 2019 album ‘Kiwanuka’. The iconic feminist punk band Bikini Kill join the bill, building on a recent reunion tour which provided that their demand for revolution girl style, now’ is now more relevant than ever. The ever popular Suede also feature after an extensive tour in which they will play their landmark album ‘Coming Up’ in full. Other high profile artists now confirmed include Princess Nokia and Bright Eyes.
Øya also extends its reputation for presenting the world’s hottest rising talents. Leading the pack is the BBC Sound of 2021 winner Pa Salieu, who recently dropped collabs with Aitch, slowthai and Ghetts. Another rising icon for Gen-Z is beabadoobee, whose early career highlights include a debut UK Top 10 album, over a billion streams of her breakthrough track ‘death bed’, and winning the NME Radar Awards. Yard Act complete a trio of UK representatives, their post-punk minimalism hitting the sweet spot between Sleaford Mods’ conversational lyricism and the angular grooves of Franz Ferdinand. Finally, Q brings a polar opposite stylistic approach as the Florida artist’s suave falsetto provides a stand-out quality in the world of alternative R&B.
Øya prides itself on its reputation for giving essential new Norwegian talent a platform to win a wider international audience. Dagny has already made a big impact with solo hits ‘Somebody’ and ‘Backbeat’ plus numerous features with Seeb. Emilie Nicolas’s beguiling jazz-tinged electronica has been rewarded with multiple Norwegian Grammys, while Kvelertak have toured stadiums across Europe as guests to Metallica. There’s also a wealth of emerging domestic artists to discover, spanning emotive pop (Mettesen), frenetic punk (The Good The Bad and The Zugly) and hip-hop/jazz fusion (Tøyen Holding).
Øya is run in a way that is environmentally sustainable as possible. It’s an ethos that informs every aspect of the festival’s planning: the site operates free of fossil fuels, with 98% of its power being renewable and all construction machinery is run on biofuel. That progressive approach is also applied to everything from recycling (75% of all waste is recycled, having been sorted by hand) to travel (98% of attendees arrive by bike, foot or public transport). As a result, Øya has been repeated hailed as the world’s greenest festival at the European Festival Awards and at the AGF Awards (A Greener Festival).
Tickets for Øya Festival 2022 are now available from Ticketmaster. Weekend tickets are especially good value in comparison to equivalent-sized UK festivals, priced at 3,254 NOK (approximately £280) for adults or 1,854 NOK (£160) for youth tickets, which are valid for fans aged 12 to 17-years-old. Day tickets are also available, all priced at 1,244 NOK (£107).
