"HAUGESUND AND HAUGALANDET" a Haugesund Travel Page by SORHUS

Destination haugalandet, which includes the coastal town of HAUGESUND, streches from the island of Utsira in the west to Etne and Sauda in the east and from Karmøy in the south to Sveio in the north.

Have a look at my general tips for festivals and happenings during the year.

NORWAYS BIRTH PLACE
Haugesund is also Norways birthplace for more than 3000 years small kings at Avaldsnes collected tols on passing ships on hte strecht between Karmøy and Haugesund known as Nordvegen. It was here , following the battle of Harfsfjord in 870 AD, that Harald the Fairhaired established Norway's first throne and the straight of Nordvegen gave its name to Norway . North of town there is a big monument in onour of Harald the Fairhaired and his battle to make norway one kingdom instead of run by many small kingdoms

AND IN 2004 ITS 150 YEARS SINCE HAUGESUND GOT THE STAUS AS CITY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

newpaper article in the guardian
http://travel.guardian.co.uk/countries/story/0,7451,1012642,00.html

videoclip from the fjords found on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhHwS_ApKuE

NATIONAL DAY (17th of may)
National day here is very special
it starts with the canon wakeing up everyone early early in the morning
7am ...the morning parade starts and anyone ( even tourists :-))) can join in) , it starts from diffrent parts in town and meet up with the fishermen statue in town where the flaggs goes to the top just befor 8
8 am ....starts a tradition that began in 1888...the rowing competition
10 am the children parade starts kids from all the schools and kindergarden starts from diffrent parts of town to meet up and marzh together to the townhall ( a building that you learn about in acitect history )
the speaker of the day can be anyone local or from abroad, lot of famouse people has spoken here
after this people join together with friends or go to cafes to have lunch
3 pm.....the folk parade starts it include diffrent clubs, activites ...for example sports team , choirs, carsclub, dancers, bands . its lot of fun to watch
5 am the graduates make a fun parade in their costumes red, blue or black...they make fun of local news, bring their cars etc

the whole day you will see people in their national costume from diffrent parts of norway and after 6-7 its great to take it off (since its so heavy) and hit the sofa after a long day, some of us sometime go out or to a party

the day is celebrated diffrently all around the country, i have celebrated it in diffrent places and must say this city has the best and longest day with things happening all day long...its very easy for tourist to experince alot of celebration without the local knowledge since it all happen down town

Every year the town have on on the longest table withe herring and people come running from far away to get to taste it for free

There is also the film festival , Viking festival, Rock festival , old boat/costal day estival, boat races and much more in this town so summer is a busy time

In every ordinary birthday they have cake and so did the town when they celebrated their 150 years.... free cake for everyone :-)