Sami Easter Festival & Sámi Grand Prix
Sami Easter Festival & Sámi Grand Prix takes place Approx Mar 20 - 29, 2027 (Easter week; Easter Sunday falls Mar 28, 2027) in Kautokeino, Norway. The dress code is Warm winter clothing with insulated boots for the outdoor programme. Many locals wear the traditional gakti, and smart-warm is right for the Grand Prix and evening concerts. Typical cost ranges from 400 to 1000 EUR per person.
The Sami Grand Prix is the anchor of Sami Easter: a joik and song contest that has become the community's own Eurovision, staged in the inland tundra town of Guovdageaidnu. Around it run championship reindeer racing on the frozen river, lasso-throwing, a duodji craft market and a cluster of Sami film screenings. Easter is also traditionally when Sami weddings and confirmations happen, so the whole town is dressed in gakti.
- When
- Approx Mar 20 - 29, 2027 (Easter week; Easter Sunday falls Mar 28, 2027)
- Where
- Kautokeino, Norway
- Dress code
- Warm winter clothing with insulated boots for the outdoor programme. Many locals wear the traditional gakti, and smart-warm is right for the Grand Prix and evening concerts.
- Cost
- Typical cost ranges from 400 to 1000 EUR per person.
- Weather
- -5 to -15C, snow-covered, bright long daylight on the inland Finnmark plateau
- When to book
- Kautokeino has very few beds and Easter is its busiest week - reserve accommodation 6 - 9 months out or plan to stay in Alta and drive in.
- Getting there
- ALF (Alta), about 2 hr 15 min drive inland to Kautokeino
- Where to stay
- Thon Hotel Kautokeino (the main hotel in the village itself), Sorrisniva Arctic Wilderness Lodge (Alta, the luxury option with an ice hotel), Scandic Alta (reliable value base in Alta)
- Official site
- https://www.samieasterfestival.com/en
How to attend
The outdoor programme - reindeer racing, the market, scooter-cross - is free to watch. Tickets for the Sami Grand Prix and evening concerts run roughly NOK 300 - 500 (about EUR 25 - 45) and are sold through the festival site once the Easter programme is published, usually in January or February. It is fully open to visitors and the community is welcoming, but treat the racing and ceremonies as a working cultural event rather than a show. Fly to Alta and drive inland.
The festival site has no ticket page at all right now - the Easter programme and the Sami Grand Prix tickets are only published there in January or February, so there is nothing to click through to yet.
Insider tip
The Sami Grand Prix is two contests in one night - the joik category is where the room genuinely comes alive, and it usually runs before the pop-song final, so do not arrive late.
Get inside Sami Easter Festival & Sámi Grand Prix
Booking matters here: kautokeino has very few beds and Easter is its busiest week - reserve accommodation 6 - 9 months out or plan to stay in Alta and drive in. 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.