ØYA will go ahead

After the terrible terrible tragedy in Norway, the organisers of Øya Festival have confirmed that the Oslo event will go ahead.Festival director Claes Olsen said on the Festival's website "The last few days have been heavy and unreal. Our thoughts go out to everyone who has lost someone or in some other way has been affected by the tragedy in the centre of Oslo and at Utøya. We send our condolences and compassion to the people who are struggling right now. These are times for mourning and reflection, and we know that many will now have to use all their time and energy on working through what has happened. In the midst of all this, we find it important that our city and its citizens shall not be broken by what happened this weekend. Organisers of concerts and events in Oslo have jointly agreed that this shall not stop us. The police, the government and the general audience have expressed a strong wish that Oslo resumes some kind of normality as soon as possible. Together with the population of Oslo and visitors from abroad we wish to take our city back. We hope that our events can help ease the sadness and also be good meeting places in the days and weeks to come. We wish to take Oslo back by once again filling it with the great variety of cultural activities this city is known for and also by spreading a clear message that our population wants to take care of each other".The Festival will take place from 9th to the 13th Aug, and headliners include Kanye West, Pulp, Fleet Foxes, The Jayhawks, Janelle Monae, Lykke Li, Aphex Twin, Kvelertak and Warpaint. Oya was a winner of the 'Outstanding' Greener Festival Award in 2010, Yourope's Green n Clean award and was the overall winner for the Greenest Festival in Europe at the 2010 European Festival Awards.  More information on Oya at oyafestivalen.com/pages/eng/.