About

Photo: Silja Haddal Mork.

Photo: Silja Haddal Mork.

The small, friendly indiepop festival Indiefjord will be taking place for the ninth time 13 and 14 July 2024.

The festival is located in the village of Bjørke, western Norway, not far from Ålesund. The village is based in the innermost part of the Hjørundfjord, surrounded by the spectacular “Sunnmøre Alps”.

Indiefjord is a volunteer-run festival, and all income goes back to covering the bands’ travel costs. The festival is organised purely for the love of music, and to show our area of Norway to visitors from abroad – and for those visitors to bring some of their culture and music to us. To see new friendships forming and to be able to listen to our favourite music by the fjord are our rewards.

Bands that have played so far include: Kip Berman from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (USA), Darren Hayman from Hefner (UK), Withered Hand (Scotland), The Burning Hell (Canada), The Smittens (USA), TeenCanteen (Scotland), Darren Hanlon (Australia), The School (UK), The Tuts (UK), Selma & Gustaf (Sweden), Gary Olson from The Ladybug Transistor (USA), The Just Joans (Scotland), The Spook School (Scotland), Lyla Foy (UK), Amanda Mair (Sweden), Nick Garrie (UK), Fightmilk (UK), Kid Canaveral (Scotland), The Electric Pop Group (Sweden), Sam Airey (UK), Young Romance (UK), Robert Post (Norway), Trust Fund (UK), Egil Olsen (Norway), Stars in Coma (Sweden), Beverly Kills (Sweden) and Agent blå (Sweden) + many, many more from all over the world. Our stages are: Bakketunet, Notanauset boathouse, Bjørke Church and Haukly, Bjørke’s community hall. Basically the whole village of Bjørke!

The story so far:

Indiefjord as a festival and club night was founded in 2014, based on a love for indiepop and a wish for other people to enjoy and explore it. The Indiefjord organisers consist of the Haddal/Mork family (John, Ingvild, Silja, Elin-Grethe and Ivar) and various other relatives + villagers + volunteers. The festival’s aim is to bring indiepop to the fjords.

The original Indiefjord was a party (or, as it turns out, a festival) for friends and friends of friends in the village that the Mork family is from: Bjørke by the Hjørundfjord. It was two days of fun and music on 12 and 13 July 2014, where friends from Sweden and the UK played lots of catchy indiepop and there was a vivid festival-vibe to it all. The festival opened up to others too, and along with bands and guests from all over Europe, the locals all helped making the atmosphere unforgettable and magical. People of all ages seemed to enjoy what was going on throughout that weekend, and it was ever only meant to be a once in a lifetime experience.

However, in February 2015, it felt the time was right to start planning another Indiefjord… The Haddal/Mork family and other organisers (and those who had attended in 2014) simply missed the vibe and the people from the previous summer and felt Indiefjord deserved the “right to live”. The second ever Indiefjord happened on the 11 and 12 July, and felt as magical as the first one – with more people from the Sunnmøre region having discovered the festival, too. In the Haddal/Mork family everything that happens more than once becomes a regular occurrence – and so… Indiefjord happened again and again and again from then on. In 2020 and 2021 we sadly had to cancel the festival due to Covid-19 and travel restrictions + the safety of everyone. But… third time lucky; the pandemic didn’t break us and we were back 9 and 10 July 2022. That year was partly (very!) rainy, but 100% fab times were had. Cue Indiefjord 2023 – the sun was shining the whole weekend through and there was an epic Tugboat Captain concert onboard a polar ship! How will 2024 be like, we wonder?

We, the organisers, are hoping to keep the festival small and friendly and the ticket numbers limited – to preserve the feeling of staying in a parallel, peaceful universe for the weekend. We hope you can make it!

Love, Team Indiefjord