ENGLISH/About us
Falturiltu
One of Norway’s biggest literature festivals for children!
Falturiltu’s main focus is to inspire young people to experience the joy of reading, by having events with a range of differents artists like authors, illustrators, musicians and other performers. During one festival week in November, the whole community – and in particular young people – become active participants in these events that take place in different arenas.
Falturiltu is organized in 10 different municipalities and has its main base on the island of Stord. In 2024 the festival had 94 different events, and 80 of these were specially for children and young adults. The attendance of the festival was 6200. Falturiltu cooperates with about 50-60 different organizations (public, non-profit and private) and features 40-50 different artists (authors, illustrators and musicians).
Nynorsk language
Falturiltu is a festival for children and young people that promotes artists connected to literature written in the language form called “Nynorsk”, one of two written standards in Norway. This form has some similarities with Faroese and Icelandic language, as most of the people that settled in Iceland and The Faroe Islands originated from Western Norway (Vestlandet). Nynorsk is still dominant in the western part of Norway, but is a minority language form compared to the standard «Bokmål».
Stord Arts Centre/ Stord kulturhus
The main base for Falturiltu is Stord Arts Centre/Stord kulturhus. Stord Arts Centre is responsible for all services related to cultural activities and heritage in the area, and works closely with non-profit, public and private organisations. Stord Arts Center is located in Stord Municipality, a town of 19.000 inhabitants situated in the county of Vestland. Stord has an airport with direct flights to and from the capital of Oslo, and is also within easy reach from from Bergen, the second largest city in Norway.
Stord Arts Center has a regional status and houses a library, cinema, cultural school, theatre stage and exhibition space.
International context
Falturiltu is interested in international partnerships with festivals/ libraries that share the objectives of creating exciting literary events for a young audience. We believe that international cooperation can give us insight into a wider range of creative practices, where sharing of experience and knowledge can sharpen our programming competence, make us better at involving a more diverse audience, and become more relevant for a young audience.
Previous international projects
-Falturiltu had in 2021-23 a partnership with Tadeusz Różewicz Municipal Public Library in Wrocław in Poland, sponsored by EEA and Norway Grants. Read more about the project on this link.
-In 2024 the Polish artist Berenika Kolomycka visited the festival with a workshop based on her book Tiny Fox and Great Boar (Norwegian title: «På fire bein»).
Contact information:
Trond Onarheim
Festival manager
trond.onarheim@stord.kommune.no
+47 911 01 239