The Bergen International Festival is the largest curated festival for music and performing arts in the Nordic countries.

The 2023 edition, the first under the new leadership of composer Lars Petter Hagen, took place on 24 May-7 June and saw Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen as Artist in Residence. Davidsen opened the festival on 24 May making her debut as Tosca in a concert version of the opera alongside Freddie De Tommaso and Bryn Terfel, and also appeared in recital, masterclasses, and in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem together with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

Other music highlights included concerts by Bomsori, Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante, Isabelle Faust and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Alice Sara Ott, Marius Neset, Arooj Aftab, as well as hundreds more live artistic experiences in venues in and around Bergen. The festival also featured the world premiere of a new play by acclaimed Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, In the Black Forest.