All traditions are local
As Norway’s national stage for folk music, joik and folk dance, Riksscena presents a wide variety of traditions. Our programme encompasses the rich and unique spectrum of Norwegian folk music, as well as traditional cultures from around the world.
On this page, you can explore the full breadth of our programme.
Norway has a great diversity of unique folk music traditions and dance dialects, kept alive by local tradition bearers throughout the country – through solo performances and folk music ensembles, competitions and social dancing.
Both vocal folk music and traditional fiddle playing on the Hardanger fiddle and ordinary fiddle are stronger than ever, while we are also seeing growing interest in older instruments such as the jaw harp and langeleik, the birch-bark horn and lur.
At Riksscena, we present traditional folk music in a range of formats:
In the Fyrispel series, the focus is on the acoustic solo tradition.
In the Norge Rundt series, we take a deep dive into local traditions during a dedicated weekend of concerts and dancing. The programme is developed together with tradition bearers from the region. We also host several traditional music and dance competitions.
The Dansefest dance events at Riksscena are becoming increasingly frequent. They combine bygdedans and social couple dancing, solo musicians and folk music ensembles across all the venue’s spaces – and the dance floor is always packed!
Tuvas Blodklubb has brought traditional Norwegian dance music to entirely new audiences, attracting hundreds of people of all ages every month.
Through the Folk Session talent development programme, we work closely with emerging voices from different traditional music communities, including Folk Sessions Gamaldans and Folk Sessions Vokal.
As Norway’s national stage for joik, Riksscena’s programme places Sámi music in the spotlight – an art form that has undergone significant development in recent years.
Sámi programming at Riksscena spans a wide range, from traditional joik to large-scale stage productions, newly created celebratory concerts, genre-defying projects, children’s performances, bands and club nights. Different traditions from across Sápmi have a natural place in our programme.
At a time when Sámi music is undergoing significant development, we have a particular responsibility to promote traditional joik. Every season, we present acoustic solo joik through the Fyrispel series. The joik association Juoigiid Searvi, one of Riksscena’s founding organisations, curates this part of the programme.
Our club concept Idja, which means “night” in Northern Sámi, has been developed in collaboration with the Sámi youth organisation Oslove Noereh over several years.
For many years, we have produced large celebratory concerts in connection with Sámi National Day, but Sámi programming can be found at Riksscena throughout the year.
The Forest Finns, Kvens, Romani/Tatars, Norwegian Roma and Jews represent important cultural traditions that have existed in Norway for centuries, but have had limited visibility in public cultural life.
Riksscena places a strong emphasis on strengthening the presentation and transmission of the cultural heritage of Norway’s national minorities. In recent years, we have established contact with a wide range of organisations, practitioners and professional communities within the different minority groups, and developed initiatives in dialogue with them.
The Forest Finns’ Tolvmannadagen, Kven People’s Day, Roma People’s Day and Travellers’ Day are marked with cultural events at Riksscena. Through the Folk Sessions talent development programme, we have established initiatives focusing on Kven and Forest Finnish traditions, as well as Romani/Travellers’ traditions.
In 2025, we produced the report “National Minorities in Norway: Music, Dance and Identity – Cultural Heritage at Risk” as a knowledge base for our own work and for the Norwegian Government’s Official Norwegian Report (NOU), “Musikklandet. Flerstemt musikkpolitikk for fremtiden”.
Norway’s music and dance scene is home to a great diversity of local tradition bearers from around the world, who are a natural and important part of Riksscena’s programme.
In 2025, performers and traditions from more than 33 different countries were represented in our programme, including both international bookings and artists based in Norway.
Through mini-festivals and programme series, we focus on specific traditional cultures and regions. We collaborate with a wide range of organisations, festivals, communities and external curators with knowledge of different global traditions and audiences, including Masahat, Oslo World, Oslo Oriental Orchestra, Somali Week Oslo, Transform and Oslo Caribbean Festival.
Samspill International Music Network is one of Riksscena’s founding organisations and an important partner in our production and programming work.
