The first half of 2024 was busy with seven festival and severaal separate concerts. For the second half of the year I attende nine more festivals and also several concerts, aneding with a total of 345 photographed concerts at festivals and other venues. Here are my favorite photos from the second half of 2024. (Photo above: Janelle Monáe at Øyafestivalen)
This part of my favourite photos from 2024 starts with the last festival I attended in June, Tons of Rock in Oslo. This year it was the biggest festival in Norway with a total of almost 150.000 people attending the four days. My total number of concerts photographed at Tons of Rock was 29, and here are six of them: Alex Rosén from Go Go Gorillas, Rob Halford from Judas Priest, ZZ Top, Joshua Kiszka and Jake Kiszka from Greta Van Fleet, Satyr (Sigurd Wongraven) from Satyricon and Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme.
After Tons of Rock Dropkick Murphys guested Oslo with a concert at Sentrum Scene. The band is a lot of punk fun!
In early July I attended one of the two days of a new festival in Halden, By The Border. The weatheer wasn’t the best, but the program was good. I photographed four artists, and here are two of them, Åge Aleksandersen and Hellbillies.
After By The Border I attended a festival that has been going on for several years, but a first time for me. Norsk Countrytreff is a country festival at Breim on the west coast of Norway. A very friendly atmosphere and some great artists. I attended the last day of the festival and saw a church concert with several of the festival artists, plus the main venue with Asleep At The Wheel, Hellbillies and more. Here are Ray Benson from AATW and the bluegrass band Get Rhythm from the church concert.
From Breim the trip continued to Trondheim where I saw a concert with Unni WIlhelmsen and also got to take some portrait photos of her.
After Trondheim, I went to Bergen to photograph Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Bergen is known for its weather, and this day was a record day of rain. I got miserably wet, but got a few good shots of the Boss and his band. If you look closely at the photo, you can see that Little Steven, Bruce and Nils Lofgren looks at the video camera at the back of the stage, and my photo is of the gigantic video screen behind the band with part of the wet crowd.
The last festival of July was Månefestivalen, which is also one of my favorites for its good atmosphere and great photo colleagues. I photographed 18 concerts, and here are Bob Geldoff, Dumdum Boys and Seigmen.
Every year since 1994 (except one year plus the pandemic) I have attended Notodden Blues Festival. So also in 2024, and I photographed 20 great artists and bands.The first day Paal Flaata played a totally unplugged concert in Heddal Stave church, which is 700 years old. The rest of the photos are Ana Popovic, DK Harrell, Joey Tempest from Europe, Vanessa Collier, Deep Purple and Rag’n’Bone Man.
From Notodden back to Oslo and Øyafstivalen. This has also been a yearly tradition since 2000, and this time I photographed 28 different artists. The great thing about Øya is the variety of musical styles. I got to see both PJ Harvey, Astrid S and Raye again plus André 3000, Holly Humberstone, Bala Desejo, Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen, Arca and Janelle Monáe.
Pstereo is a Trondheim based festival that I haven’t attended since 2015, but this year I managed to come. I like the atmosphere there, and they do some great booking, I photographed 15 concerts, and here are Fay Wildhagen, crowdsurfing with the singer of Kvelertak, the singer of Anti-Lam Front and The Pixies.
My next and also the last festival for the summer, was Blues i Hell, outside of Trondheim, at the end of August. This is also one of my “regular” festival, which it has been for more than 20 years. I photographed 18 concerts at the festival. Here are The Boogie Boys, Cat Squirrel with Mingo Balaguer and Carlos Moreno plus Mike Vernon, Angela Brown, Marco Cinelli from The Cinelli Brothers and Knut Reersrud and Rusty Zinn.
After Blues in Hell I went to Spain again for six weeks, and the first weekend I attended the Blues in Cordoba festival to see cat Squirrel again.
In Alhambra, Granada they have had a concert series, “1001 Músicas Festival”, and I got to see the last two for the season. The concerts were held at the beautiful and old outdoor theatre Teatro Gerenalife, and the first night I saw the sensational young flamenco singer Maria José Llergo, and the Queen of punk Patti Smith the second night.
I Nerja, like in many other Spanish towns they have a short week with festivities in the fall. Besides a huge carneval and parades, they also have several concerts. I atended one of them, with the Spanish artist Marta Sanchez.
Another yearly event in Nerja is the Certamen de Joven Flamenco, the competition for young flaamenco dancers and singers. Here is the winner of the dance part, Sara Luqe.
The Oslo World festival is held late October, and every year they present an impressive program with artists coming from all parts of the world. I saw Marisa Monte, Egberto Gismonti, Jorge Drexler and the fastest rapper I have ever heard, J Noa.
The first week in November I saw two good, but very different concerts. First Aqua of Babrie Girl fame at Oslo Spektrum, then Jason Isbell at Sentrum Scene.
My last festival in 2024 was Bluesheaven in Frederikshavn in Denmark. I heve attended the festival the last few years and I like it a lot. I photographed 13 concerts, and here are Ronnie Baker Brooks, Mr. Zipp doing a walkabout and Big Daddy Wilson.
The rest of November held several good concerts. John Grant, Tora Dahle Aagård, Jacob Collier, Dumdum Boys and Accept at different venues in Oslo.
September started with Kvelertak at Sentrum Scene, Paal Flaata at Vålerenga Kirke, and my last concert in 2024 was Seigmen at Sentrum Scene.
Many of my concert photos in 2024 were shot for Getty Images. You can see them all, plus photos from earlier years here.
