I didn't really expect to be attending any festivals this year. But when some friends took the initiative for a festival in one of the local valleys, we just had to be part of it! The concept and the location are stunning and amazing: a Troll Festival! Set in the beautiful valley Isterdalen by Trollstigen (the Troll Road), Romsdalen and the river Rauma.
The festival is brand new, and this year it was more like a test, with about 150 people attending, following all the corona guidelines. And it was a great success! Everyone was so kind and cosy, and it was all a collaborative labor of love.
The festival was kindly hosted at Trollstigen Camping, so the infrastructure was already there to accomodate lots of people, and Troll sculptures were placed around the area, with super epic mountains as a backdrop.
Me and Ruben had started the week before to prepare, because we were going to design and decorate the chillout area, called the Troll Forest. We wanted to create a really enchanting experience for people. Ruben carved 9 mushrooms with a chainsaw, which looked really cool. I made about 10 huge dreamcatchers. We did it all in pouring, intense rain. We worked so hard with putting it all up and improving it and maintaining it, we didn't have much time to enjoy the festival or attending the concerts. But in the troll forest we got to have our own music playing through a large speacher/soundbox (magical mystical psychill with some folk elements). We had put up tons of fairylights and candle lanterns, and some other people provided colorful spotlights to light up the trees, and troll figurines. We got help putting up whimsical branch fences and many of our tapestries.
I made a whole bunch of huge dreamcatchers for the Troll Festival. Frantically and in a hurry and with just a rope, one old curtain and a few doillies. And with a baby running around, demanding my attention. I rather like weaving branches into circles and make them stay together without glue or thread. I wish I had more time to decorate them and do more advanced things, but I rather like the rustic look too. Some of these will stay in my garden. The old ones in my garden had almost disintegrated, so it's definitely time for an upgrade.
We made a cozy chillout tent with wooden sofas covered in blankets and with pillows, with rotating purple lightbulbs in vintage lamps. And 3 portals with leaves, branches and fairylights. Although the Troll Forest looked beautiful in the daylight, it was meant to be truly impressive at night, with all the lights and lanterns. Even though the wind kept blowing out all my candles ;) But it's always hard to capture such things with a camera in the dark.
Needless to say, our baby became the little elfling troll mascot of the festival. People just fell in love with him, and many people said he was the cutest or most handsome little child they had ever seen… and various people also told me we were the most beautiful family they had met. I’m not used to this kind of attention and kindness. Sure, I have close to 40K followers here on instagram and you write lovely things to me every day. But for me that feels so unreal compared to strangers coming up to me in real life. (Social media only shows a tiny and glamorised aspect of us all.)
I do struggle with anxiety and insecurities, I’m always thinking that I’m bothering people by dressing unusual, or offending people, or provoking. I live far into the Norwegian countryside and people are not used to people like me. I’ve tried to fearlessly dress like this for most of my life, fulltime for over 17 years. I can assure you it is not always easy, at least when I don’t live in the city anymore. It takes a lot of courage, and still it is such a compromise to how I would ideally express myself. But if I dress otherwise I feel severely unhappy. So people showing so much love and acceptence means the world to me. Just the kindness of random strangers ♡
And just to say it, I don't think I'm a beautiful person (I'm quite average) or that my baby is cuter than other babies 😁 But I think that sometimes, in the right setting, your courage to be yourself, to be genuine, when you feel free and relaxed, to express yourself from your soul... It can make an impact on people or touch people's hearts.
On a less serious note, I think the majority of the festival attenders really want a baby of their own now 😅
The festival organizer was really happy about it ;)
I don't know how big the enchanted forest was, but I think perhaps 100 metres long? It was a journey to discover many wonders!
This beautiful lighted heart was not made by us, but I think it was so pretty and a great idea!
Blacklight artwork by our friend Thomas.
I love you and mushrooms
I completely failed to take pictures from the actual concert area at night... so I'm simply borrowing the 2 pictures below from HiM Panorama, just to show you the mood. I honestly wasn't there much, just briefly in a couple of occasions. I mostly took care of our baby boy. So not much time to dance this time.
Although there was this moment where my baby woke up, and I decided to put him in a wrap on my back... then play with my PodPoi (a really magical and electric soft poi). So I poied all the way through the festival site and to the end of the Troll Forest, before we went to sleep. That's the most fun I managed to have ;)
I made a troll gallery! I gathered all the best troll art pictures in the world, in hi-res, and they were showcased on a wall with colored lights. Here's but a few of them:
On Saturday morning everyone who wanted was brought by bus up the Troll Road (Trollstigen). There was going to be a concert at the top. The festival site lies just down the valley and really close to it! It's the most famous road in Norway, and I think it's truly impressive. My pictures does in no way make it justice, as there are a lot more to it than you can see. The road passes impressive waterfalls and has a view of many mountain tops, it is all so steep that several people on the bus felt really dizzy. There are numerous twists and turns which makes it challenging for a bus to drive there. The road is closed in the winter (half the year) because of the large amount of snow.
From the top, you can take a walk to a viewpoint, to get an unforgettable sight of it all. Highly recommend!
We totally missed the concert where someone played the transversal flute, beat-boxing the In the Hall of the Mountain king (click link to play the original song). But at least I got to watch a recording of the concert later. It was a sacrifice I made, to show you that beautiful view and our cute little tails ;)
We woke up to snow in the mountains one of the days! The festival was mid September, so technically many would call that autumn... but the autumn colors had just barely started showing.
I know the nature and the mountains look beautiful on my photos, but they truly don't make it justice... my eternal sorrow or struggle in life is to not be able to translate the beauty I witness around me properly, or to manage to display my inner visions to you all. But hopefully more and more :)
Festival, social distansing style! It was the first year the Troll Festival was being held, and it was more like a test. We followed government regulations for events and everything was a great success. I didn't even hear of any other festivals actually happen this year, so I guess we were really lucky!
This is Henrik, our lovely troll friend, who took the initiative for the festival.
This is one of the 3 pictures I borrowed from HIM Panorama
Many people are curious about bringing a child to a festival. For the type of festivals I like attending (electronic/psytrance and world music), children are a natural part of it all. We do believe children to be an integrated part of life. In all tribal societies children will be part of the festivities. I think it is very healthy for them to see their parents having fun and enjoying life, and to experience something different. And meeting other kids living life in a multitude of ways. Of course you are then responsible for your child at all times. Personally I am one of the most sober persons on the planet, so that's rather unproblematic for me :) I shy away from the types of festivals where everyone is really drunk. The type of festivals I attend always have the kindest people, filled with so much love for life, nature and their fellow humans.
Anyways, it was a fun challenge to bring my 15 months old baby to this festival for 5 days. It was both very hard and very easy at the same time. Often easier and more chill than being at home, but challenging because it was a new setting for us, so my mind was constantly trying to figure out the flow of things and make it optimal for all of us. I like to think I'm a flexible person which is good at finding solutions and improvising, at least in many situations.
I just really want children to be more integrated into our society. I heard we are the most age-segregated country in the world, and it makes me really upset. I want to find ways to bridge the gap.
It all looks so nice and sunny on these pictures... but the weather is often quite unpredictable in the mountains and fjords of Norway. We had many days of extreme rain and wind the days before, but it luckily cleared up for most of the festival! We slept the first nights in a tent and me and the baby on mattresses in our van. Unfortunately the door might not have been closed properly, so in the morning the mattresses were absolutely soaked, and dripping with water. But someone kindly let us sleep in a room in the cabin where the musicians and firedancers stayed, and I am really grateful. Just sharing, because it's ok if not everything turns out as planned ;)
And honestly though, we worked so hard with everything, we didn't really have time to relax or have fun... we hardly had time to eat. Which was a bit unfortunate. But then again, I could have chosen not to spend my free moments taking pictures (and you would never know about this festival).
Just outside the festival area, I met some horses in this epic landscape. Made me really feel the magic.
The Troll Road (Trollstigen) as it looks in the evening, and the valleys Romsdalen and Isterdalen's endless beauty. It's like paradise on Earth, although sometimes a dark, wet and cold paradise... ;) I can't wait to show you more in later years!
So yes, the festival was a great success! Do you have any further ideas for things which should be part of a troll festival? How would you imagine it?
I'm having lots of ideas for deco, music, scenes, dancefloor, art galleries, sculptures and costumes! It could be so much fun :D
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