A jazz festival needs artists, artists need stages and stages need to be built. Lets look at the people without who none of this would be possible.

Even though most of the Moldejazz venues are standing or are even being dismantled at the moment, the work at the biggest stage in the Romsdal Museum is still in full swing.

«This venue is designated for 6000-7000 people, but if needed it could take up to 8000, although that many tickets have not been sold yet,» said Øystein Wierli the Production Stage Manager who when he is not occupied by Moldejazz works at Elektrik Solutions AS. He started working with the jazz festival in 1984 and even though he is not a volunteer, his main motivation is his love for jazz music.

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Some of the stages need to be dismantled after they are used in order to move the equipment which is required on other stages.  So the rigging crew needs to deal with quite a number of logistical challenges. «One of the most complicated part of this job is to get a hold of the artist management before the artist arrive to check whether everything required on stage is in place. But the biggest problem is rain and mud. We always manage though,» added Wierli.

There are 50-60 people working for the stage rigging department. Not all of them are volunteers and some of them use this opportunity to raise money for organisations they are part of. Like Leif Ståle Halås, a great fan of Molde Football Club whose daughter is part of one of the teams under the club. He leads a group of volunteers who are all working for the same purpose as him. Every one of them gets 150 NOK an hour and all the money goes to the club.

» We are raising money for the teams trip to Norway Cup in Oslo,» said Halås,

He is most excited to see the concerts of Robert Plant and Veronicca Maggio.

«The reason I am doing this is because I am a great fan of MFK and Moldejazz and I want to learn about the background of it,» claimed Halås.