- "Why are you here?" asked a friend from New York. We were sitting in Oslo at Øyafestivalen. His indie band had just completed their short set, which consisted of a string of three minute pop songs that were largely indistinguishable from another. (So says the utterly self-aware electronic music journalist.) It was a good question, and one that I pondered as I watched a local metal band set up their gear on the second largest stage of the four stage festival. Aside from Aphex Twin, Jamie XX and Hercules & Love Affair, there was little that pointed to Øya as an electronic music event. Pantha Du Prince was there. But he was presenting an experimental bell composition that swayed, yet certainly didn't swing. Prins Thomas was on stage with a full band, and never took off his bass guitar.
One of Oslo's biggest music events, Øya prides itself on its diversity. Kanye West headlined this year. Fleet Foxes were also an enormous draw. But despite its impressive size, it still felt like an intimate affair. And clean too. Little kids raced with plastic cups stacked to the sky, eager to earn easy money at kiosks around the festival grounds. My friend in the band, being no stranger to the festival circuit, looked on in wonderment.
It's the little things that count at large events. And Øya had plenty of them. Bands were held to strict start and end times, as the crowd shifted en masse from stage to stage. Two stages would be going as the other two stages were prepared for the next act. The only problem with this was the Klubben stage. Hercules & Love Affair and plenty of other acts after them filled the enclosed tent to the brim, leaving some disappointed fans out in the Oslo sun. (The other three stages were open-air, and had no space limitations.)
Aphex Twin was one of the obvious highlights, DJing old rave tracks and leading eventually into Addison Groove's "Footcrab." It was experimental and messy at times, just like you'd expect. You got exactly what you expected from Hercules as well. It was a set of straight-up party jams from start to finish. Pantha Du Prince's bells were good, but the theatricality of the whole thing made it great. Prins Thomas' seemed to know this, and invited his mother to gather up some local singers to add a choir to two songs from his solid, no-frills Kraut jams.
Nighttime offered various club gigs around the city as well. (The daytime festival ended before midnight.) Actress, Johnny D, Magda, Greg Wilson and more made for a wealth of choices, with promoters booking ambitiously, safe in the knowledge that there was going to be action throughout the city. It didn't make for the most knowledgeable crowds in some instances, but that's common in Oslo anyway. As one promoter told me, "People in Norway don't go out to see names, they go out to clubs or parties they know are good." After spending a weekend in Oslo, it seems like there are plenty of each.