Øyafestivalen

Øyafestivalen, Øya to people in Oslo, is the August of pop and rock in Tøyenparken. One club night and four days in the park. Music does not start before 2 p.m. The park sits a little over a mile northeast of the centre, with trees. Simon Godley, on 16 August 2026, writes that 98 percent arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport. The Broadcast app, free, shows the day so clashes can be dodged. The office is at Kjølberggata 21, 0653 Oslo. The mail is info@oyafestivalen.no. The English page, read on 28 September 2026, says English is coming soon. The Norwegian front page is still titled with the August that has already passed, and it sells merch. Later years announced on that page are not copied here.

It began in 1999 in the circle of the clubs Paragrafen, So What!, Last Train and Betong, at Chateau Neuf, with Claes Olsen in front. Music Norway, on 6 August 2019, calls him founder, owner and the person who builds the bill, and also spells Cleas, with the letter changed. The first two years were on Kalvøya, in Bærum, and the name comes from there. The Wikipedia article says 1,000 people at the start; the table in the same article puts 1,200 in 1999. Both figures stay. In 2001 it moves to Middelalderparken and stays until 2013. From 2014 the park is Tøyenparken. The table reaches 85,000 in 2009 and 2010, and 99,000 in 2019. 2020 and 2021 are cancelled. In 2018 it is sold to Superstruct, of Providence. In 2024 that company passes to KKR. VG, on 6 August 2025, reports protests with body bags over investments tied to the West Bank. From 2010, Miniøya is another party, in June, for children, with the foundation of the same name. Øyanatt is the clubs around it.

On Wednesday 12 August 2026 Godley gets off at Tøyen T-bane a little after midday and hears The Cure's soundcheck. He leaves almost eleven hours later. Candura, from Oslo, opens the day with a bossa groove. Ole Kirkeng brings the pedal steel. Nonne, from Tromsø, comes in on rhythms that repeat. ARY does dark electro-pop. Arthur Verocai arrives with an orchestra. Dove Ellis comes on with Tiny Montgomery, by Bob Dylan and The Band, sounding behind him, and then Heaven Has No Wings lifts. Amyl and the Sniffers, with Amy Taylor, leave him no title. That midday a solar eclipse is hoped for: if the clouds open, Oslo would see 83 percent. He does not say whether it was seen.

The Cure closes that night. Ellise Shafer, in Variety the following day, writes that Robert Smith looks and smiles for the first five minutes, in black, while the band opens Alone, from the 2024 album. Then Pictures of You, High, where he mimes a line that is not copied here, and Lovesong, which the crowd sings. After In Between Days and Just Like Heaven he wipes his eyes and says that song is strange, that sometimes the last stretch stays with him. Play for Today and A Forest leave Smith and Simon Gallup back to back. The main stretch ends with Endsong, the other song from that album. The encore is ten: in Lullaby he pretends a spider climbs him and he eats it; in The Lovecats he hisses; in Close to Me he leaves the guitar and crosses the stage. He introduces Boys Don't Cry as if it were new. Godley measures 140 minutes and 28 songs, and also ends on Boys Don't Cry. Variety speaks of two and a half hours. The Independent puts Lovesong inside the ten-song encore, not in fourth place. Godley counts five bandmates on stage. Variety names Gallup, Roger O'Donnell, Jason Cooper and Reeves Gabrels. Norway Rock adds Eden Gallup, Simon's son, on guitar and keys.

Thursday is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Cave introduces Tupelo as a song about the rain and says 80 percent of his songs are about rain. A few drops fall. Then Get Ready for Love, From Her to Eternity with him on the crowd's palms, The Weeping Song with Warren Ellis's violin, Jubilee Street with the jacket off, and Hollywood as the penultimate, with the choir. Jalen Ngonda sings Baby What You Want Me To Do, by Jimmy Reed, alone. Wilco does Impossible Germany. On Friday a boat, the MS Bjørvika, leaves for Bleikøya with Girl Group, one short because of illness. On Sunday the group is complete and closes a title: Shut Your Mouth (Sometimes). That Sunday Dagny headlines with no song noted. Ravyn Lenae, also written Levae, opens Genius and, 17 songs later, closes Love Me Not. CMAT, with seven musicians, asks Oslo to crouch and goes into The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station. Lily Allen performs the whole album in the field. Godley calls the show West End Girls. The Independent calls it West End Girl and gives it 55 minutes, with a pink bedroom, a fridge and a chaise.

setlist.fm users note 29 Cure songs, from 8:40 p.m. to 11 p.m., and that list is theirs, not Shafer's. The order she publishes fits in 28. After that weekend the front page stays open. A later club date, at Parkteatret, stays announced and is not walked. Digits of years that have not happened do not enter this card.