Ice Music Festival Norway
Ice Music Festival Norway takes place Feb 2027, timed to the full moon (exact dates and venue announced in autumn) in Finse, Norway. The dress code is Very warm layers, windproof outer shell, thick boots, hat and mittens. Audiences are given warm capes but you sit still in the open cold for an hour or more. Typical cost ranges from 300 to 900 EUR per person.
Founded by Norwegian percussionist Terje Isungset, this is a concert series where every instrument - horns, harps, percussion - is carved fresh from natural ice for that edition and melts afterwards. Performances are staged high in the Norwegian mountains around the full moon, sometimes in open-air ice amphitheatres. No two editions can ever sound the same, which is the whole point.
- When
- Feb 2027, timed to the full moon (exact dates and venue announced in autumn)
- Where
- Finse, Norway
- Dress code
- Very warm layers, windproof outer shell, thick boots, hat and mittens. Audiences are given warm capes but you sit still in the open cold for an hour or more.
- Cost
- Typical cost ranges from 300 to 900 EUR per person.
- Weather
- -10 to -20C on a high mountain plateau, often windy, deep snow
- When to book
- Book the Bergen Line train and mountain lodging together as soon as dates are announced - Finse has almost no bed capacity and the festival fills it.
- Getting there
- BGO (Bergen) or OSL (Oslo), then the Bergen Line train to Finse - the village has no road access at all
- Where to stay
- Finse 1222 (the historic railway hotel, the only real hotel in the village), Haugastol Turistsenter (simple lodge one stop down the line), Ustedalen Hotel, Geilo (comfortable fallback about 45 min by train)
- Official site
- https://www.icemusicfestivalnorway.no
How to attend
Concert capacity is small, often only a few hundred seats, and tickets sell through the official festival site when the programme drops in the autumn. Expect roughly EUR 70 - 150 per concert, with packages that bundle transport and lodging. It is open to the public with no membership route. Note the venue has moved over the years between Geilo and Finse, so confirm the location before booking trains - and beware that icemusicfestival.no is a squatter site, not the organisers.
The festival's own website is not responding at the moment, so there is no working ticket page - concerts normally go on sale there when the autumn programme is announced.
Insider tip
Bring a closed-cell foam sitting pad. The seating is snow and ice, the capes handle your shoulders but nothing insulates you from underneath.
Get inside Ice Music Festival Norway
Booking matters here: book the Bergen Line train and mountain lodging together as soon as dates are announced - Finse has almost no bed capacity and the festival fills it. Members track that window, what it really costs, and 573 more events across the season.
Free while in beta. One email when your invitation is ready, nothing else.