10 Barents Spektakel festivals in a row in Kirkenes calls for a one year festival break for the organizers in the art curator group “Pikene på Broen”. The next festival will probably be held in the winter of 2015.
KIRKENES: With a floodlight projector designed for giant sport arenas, Stefano Cagol is on a path to identify and underline the borders of Europe and their fate. See our video interview with Cagol.
RAYAKOSKI: Once a year you can walk around the stone cairn marking the place where Norway, Russia and Finland meet, without breaking the law. This is during the annual Barents Ski Race, which runs on all the three countries’ territories.
Countdown to Sochi 2014 Olympic winter games has started. Torch-bearers will bring the flame through the entire Russian part of the Barents Region in October and November.
KIRKENES: The Barents Spektakel is Norway´s most border-crossing festival. For five days each year the little Norwegian border town of Kirkenes explodes in culture events, concerts with international top bands and political debates. See photos from the 2013 festival.
Staff and locals at the iconic outdoor museum of wooden architecture fear newly appointed director, ex-governor of Karelia Andrey Nelidov, will develop Kizhi into a tourist machine destroying the World Heritage site.
Finnish director Maija Kaipainen from YLE won the Grand Prix prize under Northern Character film festival 2012, while Norwegian director Per Kristian Olsen won the documentary prize.
Two years ago his mother, Queen Sonja of Norway, attended the festival. In February 2013 the Crown Prince of Norway will have the same pleasure to visit the border town of Kirkenes during the spektakular days.
The Norwegian team won this year’s Barents Sports Festival in swimming by two small points. Nearly 50 swimmers from Russia, Finland and Norway gathered in Finnmark this weekend.
