About the Norwegian Skating Festival

Norwegian Skating Festival is a skating race on the Mjøsa-lake ice starting i Moelv. There you can compete in all classes from 8-80 years over distances 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 km.

In 1909, the first official “Eleven Citys Tour” (Elfstedentocht) on skates was held on the ice of the Dutch canals in the northern province of Friesland. The tour (which is 200 km long) has been held 15 times since 1909. Due to warm winters and bad ice conditions, Dutch skating enthousiasts travelled to Lillehammer in 1974 to participate in the “Mjøsløpet” (the Mjøsa Lake Tour). The race had approximately 500 participants and was organized by 2 Dutch travel agencies in cooperation with local skating clubs and the Lillehammer Tourist Office.

Source: http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/hedmark_og_oppland/1.7405649

Norwegian Skating Festival is a project initiated in 2009 by Lillehammer Kunnskapspark (Knowledge Centre) and was part of the commitment of the regional council to strengthen the area as a Winter Sports Region. The vision of Norwegian Skating Festival is to “promote engagement in and the attractiveness of skating in the Mjøsa area through a range of skating related activities and events” (Gjerland, 2009). The project became a collaboration between local skating clubs, the Norwegian Skating Association, Lillehammer Kunnskapspark and local businesses and skating enthousiasts. The testrace in 2010 had approximately 250 participants and was a success according to the organizers and local media.

In september 2010, four local sport clubs (Moelven IL, Gjøvik Skøitebklub, Sør-Fron IL og Brøttum IL) became the new owners of the Norwegian Skating Festival. The first official Norwegian Skating Festival was held on the 18th and 19th of February 2011 and was twofold: a cultural event called “Winternight on the Ice” and the skatingrace itself. 59 of the approximately 350 skating participants were Dutch.

An impression made by Franklin Eekhout:

A round of 10 km will be cleared and the “oval” extends north to the Mjøsa bridge and then south along the west side of the lake and back north past the church Ringsaker Moelv. The route will vary in length and location in relation to the prevailing ice conditions from year to year. The Norwegian Skating Festival was moved to the icering of Sør-Fron in 2012, due to poor ice conditions, but our ambitions for 2013 are to offer a fantastic skating experience on the Mjøsa lake again.

A really happy festival on the largest winter sports arena – Mjøs Ice!