Slow TV Summer 2017 - Sommertoget - Summer Train

A train arriving at Bergen Station. Not in Sommertoget!

Yes, they're at it again. We've just got over the epic journey of the reindeer migration Slow TV. And the snow hadn't even thawed from the gumpi-wagon which broadcast the pictures from Northern Norway and there's another Slow TV coming.

Starting in June, NRK are doing 8 weeks of a summer magazine-style broadcast, of which Slow TV will make up some of the transmission. The rest of it will comprise of music, local interest and personal stories in the places visited.

Sommertoget - Summer Train will journey over much of Norway's interior, stopping and featuring 40 stations over two months. It's been in pre-production since at least last August, a customised train with outside broadcast gallery, editing suite, dedicated to bringing this show from just about all over Norway to all over Norway and beyond.

The transport-based magazine show has been covered before, though this is a break from the coastal based summer show, Sommerbåt (summer boat) season, also called Sommeråpent (open for summer). In keeping with the idea of keeping things fresh and different, this gives Norway's interior a chance to shine and be celebrated. It's not only Norway's coastline that makes for beautiful TV.

Midsummer Train - Finnish Slow TV courtesy of YLE

TV2 covered Norway from the air by helicopter in Fly Med Oss in 2014. Summer Train ialso reminds of Finland's Juhannusjunna - a 13 hour midsummer train journey - but instead of just one night journeying the length of the country, it's 8 weeks, Tuesday to Saturday inclusive each week.

Wow.

It starts June 27th in the north, so we may well have segments bathed in the golden hues of the midnight sun, and then the journey wriggles around the south of the country for a few weeks, concluding August 19th.

Probably the most experienced Slow TV presenter joins the show for a week. National Firewood Night, Knitting Night, Reindeer Migration and Sommerbåt 2013 host, Rebecca Nedregotten Strand. She will be one of a number of presenters rostered in over the eight week period.

The show happens in the sommerferie - the summer holidays - when just about everyone in Norway goes on holiday, so hopefully we'll get a lot of interaction from the public-Slow TV with lots of waving, cheering, singing and flag-waving folk.

Bergen Station - not on Sommertoget's itinerary!

I'll be blogging about it as and when I can, monitoring social media. If cheap flights can be found, I may even see about intercepting the journey at some point. It's been nearly three years since visiting Norway and I'm itching to get back!

Previous summer shows have been available to watch worldwide via the web.

The Sommertoget hub page on the NRK website can be found here.

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See also 10 Things to Do after the Reindeer Migration had finished.

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