Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker conducts the crowd. To his left, the audience is directed to sing “O” while the other half is tasked with “U.” Once the backing group is warmed up, Pulp break into their 1992 single “O.U. (Gone, Gone),” which the band hasn’t played live since 2012. Returning after a 13-year hiatus from the festival, Pulp headlined the opening night of the 25th installment of the Øya Festival (Øyafestivalen) in Oslo, Norway, on Wednesday, August 7.
The four-day fest held in Tøyen Park (Tøyenparken), August 7-10, welcomed 82,000 attendees and kicked off on Tuesday, August, 6, with a “club night” series of shows at venues across Oslo, which continued throughout the festival week with Øyanatt, late night DJ sets and performances by featured artists.
When Øyafestivalen (meaning the “island festival”) launched in 1999, it was a more modest affair just outside of Oslo on the island of Kalvøya near Sandvika, before relocating two years later to downtown Oslo at Medieval Park (Middelalderparken) then its long-term home at Tøyen, where its remained since 2014.
Despite ballooning into the largest music festival in Oslo, Øya has managed to retain a slightly intimate, island feel, from the ease of navigation throughout the park and an unintentional communal setting. Logistically, walking between stages takes at most five minutes and a nearly seamless scheduling prevents some of the noise bleeding between overlapped performances at most festivals.
Along with more fluent movement throughout the park, Øya has moved further into its sustainability practices: running off renewable energy grids and serving 95 percent organic and locally sourced and 40 percent meatless food options. Adult beverages, such as Norwegian brew Ringnes, were also served in plastic drinking cups to be reused throughout the festival, and recycled materials account for approximately 75 percent of waste. Additionally, more than 60 percent of the recyclables were used to produce new products.
“We are super happy with this year’s festival,” Øya founder Claes Olsen tells American Songwriter, who also stressed healthier audience sizes for all artists—big and small. “Lots of great shows, and an audience who showed up early and were very much into the artists,” adds Olsen. “[There are] so many festivals around where the smaller acts end up to play for thin crowds.”
Swedish pop singer-songwriter Sarah Klang had a full crowd at her disposal on opening day. Dressed in a red and pink taffeta gown with a bodice, Klang hit the Amphiet stage, dousing the crowd with some big pop, from her latest “Beautiful Woman,” a realistic trek back to teen insecurities, through her 2018 single “Left Me on Fire,” from her debut Love in the Milky Way.
Across the park at the Hagen stage, Norwegian artist Hilma Nikolaisen, who released her third album Heritage in 2021, remained mostly blasé but still cracked some smiles singing through her synth- and noise-bent “Carte Blanche” and her open requests—Give me love, give me pills, give me chills.
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At Sirkus stage, which would also welcome The National, Norwegian artist Sivert Høyem, IDLES during the remaining days of the festival, Norwegian pop star Moyka turned the tented setting into a daytime rave. Accentuated by flashing fuzzed-out green, pink screens, Moyka danced through a pulsating repeatedly thanking the audience—“Tusen Takk” (“Thank you very much”)—in between. By the end, Moyka had the audience singing the Ha-ahs in between her romanticized “Perfect Movie Scene”—If only could be like the movies / Love could be like the movies—before picking up a rainbow flag during “Illusion” from her 2021 debut The Revelations of Love.
Norwegian rappers Tøyen Holding took over Amphiet for a “full-course” concert, complete with a rotation of waiters, serving tray-fulls of oysters to audience members during their entire set, while the rappers sipped their wine or bubbly (from a glass) on stage.
“Sorry we were quiet the last two songs,” said The Kills‘ Jamie Hince, during the band’s set at Vindfruen stage, “but we like nighttime. We can’t work in the daytime.” The duo slinked through a 12-song set, going back in time to “Kissy Kissy” from 2003 debut Keep on Your Mean Side and “U.R.A. Fever” from 2008 before playing the majority of songs from their 2023 release God Games with “LA Hex,” “103,” “Love and Tenderness,” “Going to Heaven,” and more before closing on their Midnight Bloom track “Future Starts Slow.”
Just yards away across the grassy knoll, PJ Harvey stepped out draped in her custom Todd Lynn linen cape, inspired by her Realm of Orlam painting from her 2022 book of narrative poetry Orlam. Like a painting herself, Harvey stood, enchanting the Øya crowd with a generous 18-song set spanning her 2023 release I Inside the Old Year Dying through her earliest Dry (“Dress”) and Rid of Me days with “50ft Queenie” and “Man-Size,” through Is This Desire? (“Angelene” and “In the Garden”), and Uh Huh Her (“The Desperate Kingdom of Love”), along with Let England Shake, The Hope Six Demolition Project, her collaborations with guitarist John Parish, and more.
In between batches of songs, Harvey sat at her wooden table, sipped tea, or poured a glass of lemon water from her pitcher before returning to the songs, keeping her sojourn in the ‘90s towards the end of the set with “Down by the Water,” and closing “To Bring You My Love.”
Flanked by several oversized puppets, Norwegian dance-pop group, Casiokids, played their first show together in more than a decade and since reuniting following the release of abenbaringen over aaskammen in 2011. Earlier in 2024, the band released their first new singles in 13 years, “Brunsniggelen” (“The Brown Snail”) / “Tid for hjem” (“Time for Home”), the latter half the title track of their forthcoming album.
Delivering 17 songs including two encores, Pulp outdid itself headlining night one. After revisiting “O.U. (Gone, Gone),” the band dedicated “Something Changed” to Pulp bassist Steve Mackey, who died in 2023, and continued through favorites closing the main set with “Do You Remember the First Time?” “Babies,” and “Sunrise,” another pick from the band’s 2001 release We Love Life, closing the main set.
With the luxury of having not one but two encores, Pulp settled back to “Like a Friend,” “Underwear,” and “Common People” before bringing it all to an end with This is Hardcore closer “Glory Days.”
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By Thursday (Day 2), Øya continued its highlight of Sámi artists, indigenous peoples from the northernmost parts of Norway—along with the uppermost regions of Sweden, Finland, and Russia—and welcomed singer, songwriter, actor, and multi-instrumentalist Emil Kárlsen, who released the EP Binnat in 2024 and is starring in the Disney+ series To Cook a Bear.
Also representing Sámi culture, Ella Marie gave a more intimate performance earlier in the day for a crowd sailing toward the island of Bleikøya on the Oslo Fjord, before hitting the Vindfruen stage later that afternoon for her third full concert as a solo artist.
Along with founding the electro-joik (traditional Sámi singing) band ISÁK, Marie has become one of the most outspoken environmentalists and activists, bringing attention to issues facing the estimated 40,000 Sámi living in Norway, from fish farming, mining, the building of infrastructure, and more that continued to threaten their livelihood.
“For many years the Nordic state has tried to erase my culture,” Marie told the smaller audience on the boat earlier in the day, “but I am living proof that we are still alive.”
Dressed in a grey suit with the question “Who’s Lying” stitched on its back, Marie’s hands were covered in red, part of a full-body bodysuit later revealed mid-way into her set along with matching sparkling Nutukas, traditional Sámi boots. Near tears, Marie spoke about the children in Gaza before waving a Palestinian flag and kept the audience engaged with her debut single “Sániid” (“Words”), the dance-happy “Gin Gielista,” and her anthemic “Gina,” inspired by Norwegian environmentalist Gina Glyver.
Fronted by Lily Fontaine, British indie rockers English Teacher, who released their debut This Could Be Texas in 2024, hurtled into a punk jam out “Broken Biscuits,” some R&B (including song “R&B”), and more contemplative “Not Everybody Gets to Go to Space” pondering all the reasons why space is limited to a few: Not everybody gets to go to space and that’s OK / You’re too busy here, how could you fit it in? / Plus if everybody got to go to space / How would space feel like a win?
Fontaine revealed that it was the band’s first time in Norway before sharing their “love song” with “You Blister My Paint.” Throughout the afternoon, British pop star Raye, who also released her debut My 21st Century Blues in 2023, had the crowd singing along and reassured them with “You sound gorgeous,” while across the way, Jessie Ware, dressed in a velvet fringe dress and red granny boots, kept the dance party going with a choreographed disco set.
Orions Belte made up of guitarist Øyvind Blomstrøm, bassist Chris Holm, and drummer Kim Åge Furuhaug originally formed as session musicians and offered the Øya. crowd some yacht-rocking jams, while the Sirkus tent overflowed for British showgazers Slowdive. Backed by symmetric imagery flashing on the screen behind them, Slowdive moved through their 2023 release, Everything is Alive—and the band’s fifth release since they debuted in 1991 with Just For a Day—opening with “shanty” and slipping in “chained to a cloud” and “kisses.”
The night began wrapping up with Janelle Monáe, who returned to Øya after a decade, having played the festival in 2008 and 2014, before the evening headliners, The National, who also played in 2008, 2010, and 2014.
By the third day, Norwegian hardcore band Hammok tested the sound barrier at Tøyen in and around the Vinfruen stage before Big Thief shared 10 songs with an overflowed crowd, revisiting their 2016 debut Masterpiece and its title track before bowing out on their more recent “Vampire Empire.”
At Amphiet, French ambient rockers Air were set within a rectangular white-framed stage and offered a meditative retreat at Øya. The duo played their 1998 debut Moon Safari in its entirety before adding on a five-song encore of other favorites, just days before the duo at the Olympics closing ceremony in Paris.
The evening ended with headliner Jack White, who filled in last minute for scheduled headliner Queens of the Stone Age, who had to pull out of their Øya slot due to frontman Josh Homme’s emergency surgery. Trampling on stage, White plugged in and blasted through a lengthier set. At one point, he pointed out his Lansky Bros. overcoat, the once-clothier for Elvis Presley. White’s set leaned more on his solo and White Stripes with The Raconteurs’ “Steady, as She Goes” scratching a penultimate itch before giving the crowd more of what they wanted, “Seven Nation Army.”
Closing day introduced Los Angeles rocker Blondshell and New York City R&B artist Yaya Bey to the Hagen stage, while Fay Wildhagen burrowed into her catalog, plucking her Americana “Hymn” and “Echoes” from her 2024 album Keep it in the Family during her set, which was highlighted by a saxophone solo and Wildhagen’s stage dive.
“I’m glad we made it here two years later,” said Yard Act singer James Smith. The band first played Øya in 2022 and had a two-year break in between releasing their debut The Overload and 2024 album Where’s My Utopia? and returned with enough material for more punk-funk revelry.
Before IDLES’ closed the final night, frontman Joe Talbot split the audience in two, into left and right sides, inside Sirkus Saturday night, making room for mosh pits and surfing off-stage through the band’s 14-song set. Pumping up on “Colossus” and going back once to the 2017 debut Brutalism with “Mother,” IDLES eventually sewed everything up with “Rottweiler.”
Øya Festival returns to Tøyen Park in 2025 for its 26th year, August 5-9.
Main Photo: Ella Marie at Øya Festival 2024 by Ihne Pedersen
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