Leading folk and roots-based trio Dreamers' Circus has long dreamed of presenting a one-day festival that focuses on the high quality of roots music in the Nordic countries. On May 4th 2024, we're teaming up with Dreamers' Circus to curate Folkets Festival with some of the best bands from the Nordic folk music scene.

In addition to the Dreamers' Circus concert, you will be able to experience the Finnish maestros Frigg and a true folk dance ball - more acts will be announced on a continuous basis.

From Folkets Hus to Folkets Festival
With a sense of quality, aesthetics and craftsmanship, architect Vilhelm Lauritzen designed Folkets Hus, which from 1956 to the mid-1990s was an essential meeting place in Vesterbro for the labour movement. In 1996, Folkets Hus became the concert venue VEGA.

Almost 70 years after Folkets Hus opened its doors, the folk music scene takes over the iconic old halls when leading musicians from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark celebrate new Nordic folk music on May 4th. Throughout the day and night, every corner of VEGA will vibrate to the sound of Nordic sounds with big concerts, cosy jam sessions, workshops and life-affirming dance.

Danish String Quartet
Danish String Quartet continues to assert its preeminence among the world’s finest string quartets. Celebrated for their “intense blend, extreme dynamic variation (in which they seem glued together), perfect intonation even on harmonics, and constant vitality and flow” (Gramophone) and renowned for the palpable joy they exude in music-making, the Danish String Quartet has become one of today’s most in-demand classical quartets, performing to sold-out concert halls around the world.

Dreamers' Circus
Dreamers' Circus is a Danish-Swedish trio consisting of Nikolaj Busk (piano/harmonica), Ale Carr (cittern) and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, who plays violin. Since their beginning, the band has toured far and wide, delivering music of exceptional quality. Their music is deeply rooted in the folk music tradition that all band members grew up with, but it also contains elements of classical, jazz and pop music. Dreamers' Circus is a pioneer in presenting music from this region to a wider international audience.
Frigg

Frigg
The band's line-up is an ensemble of four violins, strings, and a double bass. In the spring of 2002, the band's first album was released, and Frigg became a popular topic of discussion in Nordic folk music circles. A true passion for traditional Nordic music was audible and glowing! And now, after two decades, ten albums (most recently Perintö, 2023), that same passion still burns. The hypnotic combination of the now-famous violin sound, the irresistible and creative string instruments and the pulse of the double bass continues to forge new paths and now you can hear them live at Folkets Festival. Get excited!

Katarina Barruk
Katarina Barruk is known as one of Sábmie’s most interesting young artists. Barruk’s clear, distinctive voice, in combination with a steadfast presence on stage creates a unique space of vulnerability and strength. She delivers a fierce, yet a down-to-earth mix of pop music, traditional yoik and improvisational elements. Barruk sings in one of her mother tongues, Ume Sámi. The language is on UNESCO’s red list of critically endangered languages, but now many Umesámis are taking the language back. For Katarina Barruk, making music in Ume Sámi is a way of inviting her friends and the audience into her universe, where Ume Sámi is a norm, and alive. She released her second album Ruhttuo in October 2022.

Ævestaden
Ævestaden is long psalms, modern lyrics, pop songs and a sound that doesn’t fear the clear, the dirty, the electronic nor the traditional. Their varying instrument combinations, with lyres, fiddle, kantele, vocals, mouth harp and electronics, open a unique soundscape when timeless harmonies, and layers of simple motifs, create an open and atmospheric world. Last year they released the album Solen var bättre där.

Nordisk Dans
The final programme item of the festival will be nothing less than a genuine folk-dance ball with some of the best musicians on stage and an inviting dance floor where everyone can join in. There will be lots of different traditional Nordic dances such as waltz, polka, polska, sønderhoning and schottis - you name it! Nordisk Dans can best be described as a concept made by - and for - young enthusiasts of traditional dance and music. The concept is based in Copenhagen and was born when a small group of young people missed a place where they could meet and dance folk dance on their own terms.

Read more at www.folketsfestival.com .