More than 70,000 visits to the 70th Bergen International Festival

From the first event, when 3500 people attended the opening ceremony, to the Closing Concert on Wednesday 8 June, the Bergen International Festival has so far registered 70,337 visits.

Out of these, approximately 28,000 have attended ticketed events, while around 38,000 visits have been registered to the festival’s extensive outdoor programme and other free events. The remainder has been to the festival exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall.

‘The number of visits has been better than we had dared hope just a few months ago. For a long time, we were unsure whether the pandemic would continue to affect the programme and how the public would respond. Now, it turns out we have achieved our budget, and the number of tickets sold is approaching that of the festival in 2019. We are delighted about the many sold-out concerts, lively crowds and the clear joy in the meeting between audiences and artists, says festival director Lars Petter Hagen.

This year's festival is the 70th in a row and the first without pandemic-related audience restrictions since 2019.

‘Cultural life still has significant challenges after the pandemic, with a decline in the number of events and audiences in many places. That is why I am extra humbled and proud that this year's festival has been so well received. We could not have created this without the Bergen International Festival's many incredible partners, says Hagen.

The programme consisted of more than one hundred different open programme events and hundreds of individual events, both outdoors and inside Bergen's many cultural arenas. More than 1,800 artists have performed during the 15-day festival period.

Popular programme events were audience and critic favourites such as Lise Davidsen & Leif Ove Andsnes, Angélique Kidjo and Eivør, and the performances of Plato's Symposium, Zappzarapp and The Art of Seeing. Free concerts and activities at Torgallmenningen have also been well attended, despite varying weather conditions. The final event at the 2022 Bergen International Festival is the Closing Concert with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth and pianist Paul Lewis on Wednesday, 8 June.