The sun goes, the Blues come

Fri­day saw this year’s final sun­ri­se and sun­set; both were kind of hap­pe­ning at the same time and behind moun­ta­ins any­way, hence invi­si­ble from Lon­gye­ar­by­en. The polar night star­ted on Satur­day, the first day wit­hout the sun coming abo­ve the hori­zon at all – until mid Febru­ary! The polar night, almost four months long, is, howe­ver, not com­ple­te­ly dark. The real dark peri­od (mør­ket­id) won’t start until ear­ly Decem­ber. Until then and in the last weeks of the polar night, the­re are a cou­ple of hours of twi­light mid day. Click here for more about mid­night sun and polar night.

The first day wit­hout sun: ear­ly after­noon at mine 3.

So now, with four months wit­hout sun to come, you could inde­ed get the Blues – and you do the­se days in Lon­gye­ar­by­en 😎 the Dark Sea­son Blues Fes­ti­val is hap­pe­ning the­se days, as every year in late Octo­ber, when Nor­we­gi­an and inter­na­tio­nal Blues acts come to Lon­gye­ar­by­en to share the various stages in town.

Dark Sea­son Blues Fes­ti­val in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Stein Stok­ke & the Engi­ne at work in mine 3.

One of the­se stages is at mine 3 abo­ve the air­port. Mine 3 used to be a real coal mine, but aban­do­ned in 1996, it is now used as a visi­tor mine and the sur­face instal­la­ti­ons are occa­sio­nal­ly used for cul­tu­ral events. This Satur­day, one could enjoy some hear­ty-hef­ty Blues the­re play­ed by Stein Stok­ke & The Engi­ne, a Blues band with a good name in Nor­way.

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