The Festival that Doesn't Sleep
Traenafestivalen, in Norway. Tips, advice and information for those thinking of heading to one of the best festivals on the planet.
Hey Team,
So I’ve been away for a bit, part of that was taking a week or so to head to a slightly ridiculous festival, on a remote island off the west coast of Norway, way up in the Arctic circle. It was in July, so there’s 24 hours of sunlight each day.
Now, in planning for the trip, we bought the tickets back in September 20231, with the website being exclusively in Norwegian, and ‘light’ on detail to say the least, I thought I’d deviate slightly from the usual topic of wine, and provide some English language insight into the nuts and bolts of this festival for those thinking of going, aimed at people who aren’t from Norway.
This is going to be a fairly long read, I’ll try and keep it 50% flouncy travel journal, 50% solid gold tips and advice.
Buying Tickets
The Traena Festival Website is here: https://www.trena.net/
Native iOS Safari doesn’t naturally translate Norwegian, but Chrome / Google will do it just fine. Also: The Google Translate a Website Link
Festival Tickets are 2000kr/nok (£150).2
If you’re camping you’ll need to buy a Teltpass (Tent Pass), if you’re sharing a tent with someone else, one of you needs a Teltpass and one of you needs a camping pass (cheaper).
Teltpass is appx. 600kr/nok (£50)
Tickets all in are about £250 / €300, which is pretty reasonable for Wed - Sat of Festival.
The ticket system is a 3rd party platform called Hoopla, and it feels a bit dodgy, but it was totally fine to use. I got an automated email with the QR code ticket and receipt immediately.
Done. That it is pretty straightforward. On-site there is a info point on the Thursday where you can exchange your QR code for a wristband, and grab a zip tie laminated Teltpass to attach to your tent.
Not a single person actively checked the Teltpasses at any point in the campsite all weekend, but for £50 the comfort of knowing that you’re fully conformed just in case, was worth it.
Travel
Right, hold tight. Essentially you have to:
Outbound:
Get to Norway - Tuesday Morning. Probably the capital Oslo, or the other main city, Trondheim.
Get to the coast - Tuesday Evening. From an international airport to a small town on the coast with a ferry port, either Stokkvågen, or Bodø3.
Get to Traena - Wednesday morning. From a small town on the coast, by boat, to the island, which is a beautiful boat journey, for a good few hours.
Inbound
Get off Traena - Sunday Lunchtime, nearly all the boats depart about 1:30pm to the coast.
Get back to the coast. - Sunday evening. We stayed stay over in Bodø again.
Fly Home - Monday morning. You could get a late flight on Sunday, but would recommend the sleep.
If you want to get to the island of Traena on Wednesday… you need to get to Norway on Tuesday.
Lots of people arrived at the festival on Thursday & Friday, but I think to get the full experience, the Opening Party is Wednesday evening, you may as well get there on Wednesday. Besides, it’s 2 days of travel either side of the festival, why would you only stay on the island for two days?4
The Official Festivaltog (Festival Train)
A 16 hour journey that runs from Oslo, via Trondheim, to Mo i Rana5.
The journey is 2pm leaving Oslo, then a night train leaving at 11pm from Trondheim, arriving Mo i Rana at 6am. A short hop on the bus to Stokkvågen, with the the Ferry leaving at 9am, arriving at Traena at 11am.
You’d need a Festivaltog train ticket, the bus ticket to get to Stokkvågen, and then the boat ticket to get to Traena.
Fuck. That.
The way we did it.
There are loads of options from the UK. You could get a flight from London Gatwick, with Norwegian Airlines to Trondheim, or with Scandinavian Airlines to Oslo, both relatively inexpensive, £150 ish. BUT. The fiddling about on the trains seemed like a massive inconvenience to us.
Instead of a night train, we flew straight to Bodø from London Heathrow, with a short change at Oslo, for around £170 for a return ticket. The flight from Oslo to Bodø was 1hr, much better than a 16 hour train journey. More on why the stop at Oslo Airport is important later.
We got the 8:30am flight from Heathrow and were safely settled in a hotel in Bodø by about 6:30pm. The middle class way.
Bodø is one of the European Capitals of Culture cities for 2024, so was actually lovely. Plenty of places to eat, grab a beer, wonder around by the sea. The Visit Norway website does a great job of selling the place.
We split the cost of 3 twin rooms between the 5 of us, which with Scandic Hotels6, and it came in at around 600nok (£50) each for the night. Much better to sleep in a single bed, than on a night train.
Tip: The Scandic Hotel in Bodø that we stayed in was Scandic ‘Havet’, is was literally 30 seconds from the ferry terminal to get you to Traena.
We had some beer and food at the Hundholmen Brygghus (brewhouse), great food and on-site brewed beers, albeit much like everywhere in Norway: Expensive.
The Boat to Traena
Book the boats here: Reis Nordland - There is an English or German toggle button version. Pretty straightforward.
Get the earliest boat you can. It takes 4 - 6 hrs, even on the ‘speed boat’, with lots of stops at other islands along the way. The boats direct to Traena leave at 8am or 4pm, definitely get the 8am if you can. This is from either Bodø or if you go to Stokkvågen.
The other boats get busy and there were lots of rucksacks, luggage, tents, people and queues on the way back. We got the 8am ferry from Bodø, and it was an absolute 4 hour delight. If you can, sit out on the top deck, away from the wind and enjoy the views.
The boats are spacious and plenty of seating, toilets, coffee and snacks. Essentially like a big water-train in terms of facilities.
The ferry terminal you’ll need for the speed boat in Bodø is called ‘Bodø Senstrumsterminalen Kai’, (Central Terminal Dock), at the terminal jetty the sign says ‘Bodø Hurtigbatkai’. ‘Hurtigbåtkai’ translates to Speed Boat Dock7.
The trip to Traena from Bodø was 412 nok (£30), pretty cheap. The big ferries, the ones that you can take your car on, are free for pedestrian passengers, but there is limited space, you can’t book them, and they take even longer.
Getting Back
We did the exact same thing in opposite. We found that the boats to get off the island all pretty much left at 1:30pm on Sunday afternoon, so getting back to the U.K by Sunday night would be pretty much impossible.
Our ferry from Traena to Bodø on the Sunday was the quietest queue off the island. We found out that the speed boat tickets were sold out, so definitely get them well in advance. The festival staff were making sure that people in the Bodø queue had definitely booked a ticket.
The speed ferry back did involve a change of boat at a different island called Onøy, but other than the queue to change from one boat to the other being 30 minutes because the tickets were being manually ticked off a clipboard, the change was pretty straightforward.
The car ferry queue to get of Traena was long and looked like there was a good chance you might not get on the free pedestrian slots. Again, I wouldn’t risk being stuck on the island.
We got to Bodø in good time (6hrs total from Traena), stayed in the same hotel in Bodø on Sunday night. Got an early flight from Bodø via Oslo, to Heathrow on Monday Morning.
Getting Supplies
Wine & Spirits
You see the thing about Norway is that it’s really hard to buy alcohol. The domestic market is controlled by the Government and you can only buy upto 4.5% abv in the shops. You have to go to the Vinmonopolet to buy anything else.
The nearest Vinmonopolet in Traena is a 6hr boat journey back to Bodø. BUT, the Vinmonopolet in Bodø is only open from 10 - 6pm Monday - Friday, and 10 - 4pm on Saturday. In all likelihood you’re not going to be in Bodø while the place is open. We arrived too late, and left too early.
TIP: Get as much high strength alcohol as you can carry at the Duty Free in Oslo Airport.
Wine: Stock up on Bag-in-box wine, if that’s your thing. There is a great selection of BiB wines, 1.5ltr bagnums, or 3ltr boxes of pretty decent wine. I saw plenty of stuff I’d have gladly had at a festival, probably red, easy drinking Cotes du Rhone or something like that. Annoyingly, I’m telling you this in hindsight, as I didn’t bloody buy any, when I definitely should have done.
Spirits: If you want some rum, gin, vodka for mixers, or locally produced Aquavit for a hip flask, then do that at the Duty Free as well. We didn’t buy enough.
Looking back, we stocked up too much on food, and not enough on wine & spirits to have at the campsite.
You can’t buy anything other then 4.5% beer from the shop on the Island.
I can’t repeat that enough: Alcohol is really expensive at the festival bars, and only slightly less expensive from the shop on the island. Also, whatever beer you get, it won’t be great.
The festival bars are around 120 nok (£9) for a 500ml can of beer, or a 200ml glass of wine. The Joker shop is around 40nok (£3) per can of beer low alcohol beer.
Beer & Not Beer
There is one big shop on site, called Joker. You can get all the food, camping supplies, coffee, water, beer, soft drinks, camping food, snacks, breakfast, sandwiches you can think of on the island. There’s no need to take any food with you from the mainland, stock up on booze instead.
Quick Costs Update:
Festival Ticket & Camping Pass: £250
Return Flights: £250 (Return LHR > BOO, via OSL)
Bodø Hotels: £100 (Total. Tuesday night & Sunday night)
Return Speed Boat: £60 (Bodø > Traena & Traena > Onøy > Bodø)
Supplies: £100 ish
Total: £750
Arriving at Traena, The Festival Begins.
Camping
Wild Camp. Just take my word for it. We didn’t and I regret it a little bit.
There is a main camping area is a spread out, flatter area that’s covered in grass, and perfect for camping. It never gets as hectic as a cramped, jam packed English festival, feel free to grab a nice big space if there are a few of you.
But, the camping area, really extends up the hills, and into the surrounding areas, across the road to the rocky coast, around and across some slightly boggy patches. People were honestly camping anywhere.
Tip: Camping Stoves. The festival info says ‘no grills’, but they’re talking about disposable BBQ things. Any standard camping stove was perfectly acceptable. If you need gas canisters, buy them in the camping supplies shop in Bodø8. If you need camping meths, you can buy that from the Joker on the island.
If we go again, we’d definitely find a quieter spot on the hillsides, with better views of the coast and sunsets, maybe somewhere out the way of the wind. Just make sure you’re a comfy few minute walk from the toilet block9.
Yes, it is light all the time, bring a sleeping eye patch, or buy a blackout tent if you need to. Maybe some earplugs if you fancy getting to sleep before 4am.
The Festival
I’m not going to do a day-by-day account of the festival, nobody really wants to read that.
The music was pretty random, but all roughly in the same ballpark. The main stage was modern Norwegian indie pop rock, punky, guitars-bass-drums. The Kirk was quiet, jazzy, folk acoustic stuff. All delightful.
The eerie thing about the festival is that because of where you are in the arctic circle, the sun doesn’t go down. It sets at midnight then rises again immediately. 24hrs of daylight, everyday. Yet, weirdly, you don’t get tired, or feel the time of day. Every evening we checked our watches when the band started at midnight and were completely baffled by the daylight. You get used to it pretty quickly.
The Thursday night rave was the weirdest thing.
Thursday Night Rave
Follow your ears, for about 30 minutes, or go find the moose by walking across the islands baren areas. The rave starts at 2am, but you’ll be able to see perfectly, don’t worry about that. There’s no bar, so take as much booze as you want.
Kirkhelleren
This is gig in the mouth of the cave. The one that is in all of the photos. You must go. It’s a very chilled out gig, outdoors, in the middle of the afternoon, but the sights are amazing.
You need to buy a boat ticket in advance. You can buy these on the same Hoopla Ticketing system. There is a limited amount of boat spaces, so you definitely need a ticket. They didn’t check the tickets at all, but it felt right to definitely have one.
Get to the jetty early. There is the long walk through the tunnel, and a gig at 12:30 on the other Island (The ‘other’ island is the one that is in all the photos, and is the logo of the festival, but the actual festival is on the main island.) We waited ages on the jetty, missed the first couple of boats and eventually got to the cave around 3pm, I think you’d be better of getting the earliest boat you can, so you can spend a bit of extra time on the island.
Don’t sit too close to the stage. The acoustics are better slightly further away, but this does mean you’ll have to put up with an almost constant stream of people blindly milling about right in front of you looking for a better spot. Your call, a good view, or better sound.
Getting Back. At the end of the Kirkhelleren gig, they ask the audience to help lug bits of equipment back down the path to the boat. Anyone that helps skips the queue and gets back on the first boat. Wait until the end, grab yourself a bundle of cables and a mic stand and waltz past anyone who left the gig early to try get on the first boat back10.
General Festival Tips:
The music at the Kirka (Church) is the small church building near the Museumshagen (Museum Garden) was always quiet and beautiful. Spaces are limited. We stood outside for more than one of them. The gigs seem to start at 11pm but get there for around 10:30pm to get a seat inside. Go and see whatever is on, as each night they were great.
Museumshagen is fun. There’s long tables, a bar, easy going music and some DJ’s most days from 11am - 6pm. Worth a look.
Don’t miss out on the fish throwing contest. You’ll figure that out when you get there.
Dress, but don’t over-dress for every type of weather possible, warm clothes and beanies, but also shorts and sunglasses.
Most days the bands start around 7pm, but there is plenty to do during the day, take a walk, head into the hills, go for a swim, find some food, there seemed to be something to do to pass the time.
The Traena Kaffekollektiv is hands down the best spot for coffee on the island. It seemed that hardly anyone knew about it or found it because it was always quiet. They had snacks, waffles, and cocktails as well as coffee, so was a great spot overlooking the sea for a bit of quiet time. To find it, head for the Joker, then walk along the coast about. There is a sign. On the other hand, don’t tell everyone about it, yeah?
The VIPPS app. This is a Norway specific cash transfer app, where you need to have a Norwegian bank account, phone number and address. Kinda like Venmo. Most places on the island took standard card payments, and there’s basically no cash, but you also can’t use the VIPPS App if you’re not from Norway. So places like the boat harbour cafe, and some of the locals selling stuff from their front gardens are no use to you if you can’t pay with VIPPS. Some vendors did say they’d take cash, but we couldn’t find a quick way to get any cash on the island, so it might be worth taking some local currency with you.
We used an app called Splid, which was great for splitting the costs of group purchases, such as planes, boats, rounds of drink. We found it easier to have all the tickets for stuff in one booking.
That is just about everything you need to know for the festival. It’s genuinely amazing.
If you get the chance to go. Just Go.
Final Update on Spending
On top of the £750 you’re already in for, travel, tickets and stuff, expect to spend around 500 - 700 nok (£50) per day on drinks and supplies and foo. Over 4-5 days that is another £250.
I probably spent more than that all told, with meals out, and stocking up on spirits and bottles of wine and such, but we’ll get to that in the next newsletter when I focus on the wines.
Half off the back of this article.
The Exchange rate in my mind is about 10:1 kr:£, but in reality it’s closer to 70p to 10nok, or 100nok = £7.
Bodø is pronounced ‘Borduh’, as the ‘ø’, is effectively an ‘uh’ sound, or like ‘urgh’.
LOTS of people were shocked that we’d travelled all the way to Traena specifically for the festival, and weren’t combining it with other travel around Norway, or extending the stay beyond the festival.
Mo i Rana is a small town near the coast that someone described as the ‘Milton Keynes’ of Norway. Make of that what you will.
The nice Scandinavian version of Premier Inn, you know what you’re going to get.
The other boat dock is the Ferjekai, which translates to Ferry Dock, and the boats are considerably larger!
There is a shipping centre open until 8pm in Bodø, the Sportoutlet, or the Clas Ohlson will sort you out. I’m sure its the same for Mo i Rana or Stokkvågen.
The toilet block was never over crowded or filthy, there were stewards stocking them up and cleaning them daily. Even the showers were relatively clean and not over crowded for the duration of the festival. There’s only about 2500 people who attend the festival, so it never feels overwhelmingly busy.
Me.