Notodden Blues Festival

The Notodden Blues Festival has run since 1988 and is the largest of its kind in Norway and among the larger blues festivals in Europe, filling a town of around nine thousand for four days in early August with concerts on outdoor stages by the lake, in the Bok og Blueshuset, in churches and in clubs, and it has brought most of the significant living blues performers to Telemark over its history. The town is an unlikely setting and a fitting one: Notodden was built on hydropower and the Norsk Hydro works, and its industrial landscape and workers' housing, part of the Rjukan-Notodden UNESCO World Heritage Site, give the festival a backdrop of factories and canals.

What you actually see

• The lakeside stages - main concerts beside Heddalsvatnet.
• The club programme - smaller venues, churches and the Blueshuset.
• The industrial setting - UNESCO-listed factory landscape around the town.
• The free events - street and outdoor programming through the week.

When to go

Early August, the fixed festival period; tickets and accommodation should be arranged well ahead as the town's capacity is small. Norwegian August weather is unreliable and much of the programme is outdoors.

Honest expectations

Accommodation in Notodden is very limited and many visitors camp or stay in nearby towns. The main stages are outdoors and performances go ahead in rain. Outside the festival the town is quiet.

Nearby

Heddal stave church is a few kilometres away; Rjukan and the Telemark canal lie west and south.