«På den yderste nøgne ø»: En studie av Trænafestivalen

Festivals are an increasingly widespread phenomenon in the Norwegian cultural life where they are located both in villages and cities. In several cases we see that larger crowds are drawn against rural areas to experience culture in special surroundings, and an experience oriented society is predicted to be characteristic of today’s well developed countries. This thesis studies Trænafestivalen. This is a music festival which essentially takes place on two neighbouring islands along the coast of Helgeland, outmost the sea gap. Today the festival is a success and every year thousands of people gather on Træna to experience music and nature. This thesis will focus on the underlying factors which have contributed to this success, as well as important characteristics of the festival. The study will focus on the resources which are available and see how the festival makes use of them. The methods which have been carried out are observation and interviews, where primarily eight informants are the source for large parts of the information base. Main findings show which unique resources that underlie the festival, and also how the organiser is professional in their organisation of experiences by making use of local history, and local values and resources. They portray their product in a genuine manner and therefore contribute to a natural encounter between people and their surroundings