Festival's Gold

Have you noticed this year's official t-shirt? On the back it says 'Festivalens Gull'. We have had a chat with some of the people who are involved and working to make it a festival. First up is Ida Henriette Toftner, the law student from Holmestrand who has taken the lift ticket to work at this year's festival. Ida is the group leader for the sign group, the ones who ensure that you, as guests of the festival, find your way around more easily.

We meet Ida in a break between hanging some signs and just before she is about to leave and see if everything is in order with the signage for a concert entry. Ida is from Holmestrand and devoted herself to life as a volunteer at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival when the sign group was established as a new group ahead of the festival in 2018. This year Ida is the leader of the sign group. The law student says that she took the lift ticket on Friday, and it comes in handy when the purpose of the sign group is primarily to put up signs. 

When the festival kicked off on Wednesday, almost everything had been signposted - so now Ida hopes that it will be left alone until the festival is over. We wonder if that means that the sign group can now lie down in front of the stages and enjoy the rest of the festival. "Yes - that would have been nice" replies Ida and says that there is still a lack of a sign here and there and that they have to make ongoing assessments of what is needed in terms of equipment etc. Ida's group designs signs and ensures that they are made and hung up there they are needed. Be it everything from the banners that hang in the street outside Barnivalen, signposting to the toilet, to signs that guide you on the way to the right concert arena, as well as much more. 

Ida and her eight employees are concerned with the environment and recycling. The plan now is to build up a sign library. This means that when the festival is packed up on Sunday, they will have a bigger job of collecting and taking care of the various signs so that they can be used again next year. 

When we then ask Ida why she is involved in this, the answer is "because it's fun! Because there are cool people here and, because both when I work and when I have breaks, I get so much wonderful and cool music with me!"

Text: Anna Moxnes / Photo: Morten Kolve