Polarjazz
Polarjazz takes place Feb 4 - 7, 2027 in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway. The dress code is Heavy outerwear, insulated boots and a headlamp for moving between venues in permanent dark; relaxed smart-casual once you are inside. Typical cost ranges from 500 to 1500 EUR per person.
The world's northernmost jazz festival, held at 78 degrees north during the polar night when Longyearbyen sees no sun at all. Concerts run in the church, the culture house and old mining-era halls, with informal jazz lunches by day and headline sets at night. Between venues you walk through total darkness under a sky that is often full of aurora.
- When
- Feb 4 - 7, 2027
- Where
- Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway
- Dress code
- Heavy outerwear, insulated boots and a headlamp for moving between venues in permanent dark; relaxed smart-casual once you are inside.
- Cost
- Typical cost ranges from 500 to 1500 EUR per person.
- Weather
- -12 to -20C, no sun at all, twilight to full dark, good aurora odds
- When to book
- The programme appears in autumn and passes sell out. Book flights and a Longyearbyen bed before you buy tickets - the town has only a few hundred rooms.
- Getting there
- LYR (Longyearbyen Svalbard), about 10 min to town; connections via Oslo or Tromso
- Where to stay
- Funken Lodge (the grown-up option, champagne bar and best restaurant in town), Basecamp Hotel (trapper-cabin boutique, driftwood and sealskin, huge character), Radisson Blu Polar Hotel Spitsbergen (largest and most central)
- Official site
- https://www.polarjazz.no
How to attend
Single tickets and festival passes are sold via polarjazz.no and eBillett once the autumn programme is published, roughly EUR 30 - 60 per concert or EUR 150 - 250 for a pass, and popular shows sell out early. It is open to the public. The trip itself is the investment: fly via Oslo or Tromso, book a hotel the same day tickets appear, and add snowmobile or ice-cave tours, which is why most people go.
The 2027 programme has not been published, so the only live ticket links are for concerts that have already happened - single tickets and passes reappear on polarjazz.no and eBillett in the autumn.
Insider tip
The jazz lunches are the sleeper events - small rooms, cheap or free, and the musicians play far looser than they do at the evening headline shows.
Get inside Polarjazz
Booking matters here: the programme appears in autumn and passes sell out. Book flights and a Longyearbyen bed before you buy tickets - the town has only a few hundred rooms. 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.