Fun with Beer and Music

Last night, Kevin and I went with Anders and Nina to an Irish music festival in Dokka. The concert was held in a huge tent furnished with long wooden picnic tables and benches, a booth serving up Irish stew and not so Irish pølser (hot dogs), and lots of beer, wine and Irish coffee. The first act was "Lassie and the Lads", a Norwegian group that performs traditional Irish music. They were fantastic, and I never would have known that they weren't Irish until they started chatting with the audience in fluent Norwegian. I must say, it's pretty easy to make me happy--a nice glass of wine and a rousing rendition of "Whiskey in the Jar" put a smile on my face all evening long!

Next up was a dance troupe doing Riverdance-esque footwork--very impressive! Some of the drunker audience members were standing up on the picnic tables and benches, trying to dance along--not as impressive, but really funny! The last performer of the night was Johnny Logan, a three time Eurovision winner. Before I moved to Norway I had never heard of the Eurovision contest, but it is a 50 year old continent-wide talent contest in the E.U. Each country presents a singer or a musical group (complete with crazy dancing and costumes that put ice dancers to shame). After watching all the different acts on T.V., everyone in the E.U. can vote for their favorite act. Last year's winner was a group from Finland called Lordi who dressed up like some kind of dinosaur/gladiator hybrids, and this year I believe the winner was a singer from Serbia.

Anyway, Johnny Logan has won this contest in the past and is hugely popular in Norway. I also liked his performance, but my enjoyment was tempered slightly due to a full glass of beer being chucked through the air and landing squarely on my head. I think it might have come from the drunk girls dancing on the table behind us, but I can't really say for sure. All I know is that I am very grateful that it was just Norwegian Ringnes beer--I think a glassful of thick, authentic Irish beer like Guinness running down my face would have been a little nastier! Oh well, even though I smelled like a brewery on the drive home, my hair is super soft and shiny today!