There's a Jazz Festival in a Norwegian Town That's Famous for Its Views of the Northern Lights
File this one under one of the coolest things we've ever heard of... literally: There's a jazz festival in the middle of the arctic circle, in a Norwegian town called Longyearbyen, which is known for its views of the Northern Lights. Since 1998, jazz enthusiasts and world travelers have flocked to Polarjazz, and for good reason.
As if jazz music weren't soothing enough, Polarjazz takes place in the middle of the "polar night" — meaning you'll be in darkness the entire time. In fact, according to Cecilia Blomdahl of Arctic Travel Concepts, the town is slowly coming off pitch black dark season and moving "into a month of blue." Imagine standing around listening to music while the world arounds you turns blue?
This year's Polarjazz will take place from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3. You can find more information on the festival's website here, but we should warn you that you might want to brush up on your Norwegian first. To get there, we recommend flying to Oslo (OSL) and then connecting onto Svalbard (LYR) on SAS.
The Norwegian town, Longyearbyen, is also home to the northernmost brewery and settlement on the planet. The town itself is Svalbard's largest settlement; Svalbard, of course, is known for the Global Seed Vault, which in the case of catastrophe, represents the world's biggest chance for longterm survival. TPG himself went to visit it last year. Those are some pretty solid accolades if you ask us.
If you're headed to the festival, just don't forget to pack your winter jacket. Your really, really heavy winter jacket.