Capital of Culture 2024
Norwegian Bodø celebrates start of Capital of Culture year
Skyline of Bodø: The cultural capital north of the Arctic Circle has 54,000 inhabitants. photo
© —/Visit Bodø/dpa
The first cultural capital north of the Arctic Circle opened the 2024 cultural year on Saturday evening. A storm almost put a stop to the celebrations.
With dances, fireworks and music, Bodø in Norway marks the official start of the year Celebrated Capital of Culture. In her speech, Queen Sonja acknowledged that the city invites everyone to create beautiful communities – at a time when encounters are more important than ever.
Around 12,000 to 15,000 people celebrated at the event in the harbor on Saturday evening. Because of storm “Ingunn”, which brought strong winds and also destroyed some window panes in a hotel, it was unclear for a long time whether the celebration could even take place.
Bodø, with around 54,000 inhabitants, is the first European Cultural Capital north of the Arctic Circle. The culture of the Sami, the indigenous people in the surrounding Nordland region, will receive a special focus. The other cultural capitals this year are Tartu in Estonia and Bad Ischl in Austria.