Norway got pulled into the modern cultural era starting with the JAPs in the mid 1980s, and then the rest of society sometime during the economic depression of the early 1990s. I'll write about the first techno party I went to during this period some other time.
It's a quiet Saturday today, so here goes:
Back in the late 1980s/early1990s there was a student at the university in Oslo who was crazy about the opera. He was constantly pestering his friends to go with him to the opera. They started calling him Mozart - and he even dressed up as Mozart when going to the opera. Then his friends got the idea of doing the same, and also inviting all their friends and friends of friends along. Afterwards they would return to a club at the university to dance waltzes and other classical dances. And thus the annual Operaballet ("Opera Ball") in Oslo was established. The dresscode is late 18th Century French, German, Austrian etc. nobility.
My first Operaballet was in the early 1990s. The evening started at 3PM (Saturday afternoon) with a bunch of us meeting at an artsy restaurant in the center of Oslo. (In those days, Oslo was still rather stuffy and not ready for alternative lifestyles. Walking down into town, passing by the Palace, and then along the city's main street whilst dressed as Louis XVI did get me a bit of attention. Oslo was not ready for this back then.)
After a meal at the restaurant we walked in style along Karl Johans gate to the opera, stopping traffic and just about everything else as we walked past.
Most of the audience (300 or so) at the opera were participating in the Operaballet, and were therefore in costumes. Afterwards we walked in a torch parade down to the castle where an old banqueting hall was hired for the Operaballet - which at this stage of the evening is a reenactment of an 18th Century ball. An orchestra was hired in for occasion, the music was authentic, and the waltzes were performed to perfection. (We had all been given classes in the weeks before).
This went on until 3-4-ish in the morning. The afterparty was held at the university, on the other side of town. Taxis were needed to get us there.
The early 1990s coincided with the last occupation of buildings by far-left activists groups. They would illegally take over old block of flats, and barricade the entrances. The occupation would go on for years until the police finally got a court order and then got around to evicting them, usually after a massive fight and ensuing riots. Two such buildings were Kruses gate 7 and 9 - both architectural gems that really needed preservation and not illegal occupation.
As we left the banqueting hall and were organising ourselves into taxis, rumour had it that an illegal rave (a type of party we had barely heard about until then) was being held in the basement of Kruses gate 7 that night.
The girls we had were all dressed up like Marie Antoinette, with ridicuolously wide dresses and high hair/hats. They weren't to keen on going to a basement party in a almost ruinous building occupied by far-left activists. But 7 or 8 us guys decide to check it out - on our way to the actual afterparty. So at around 4 AM on that Sunday morning, a bunch of gentlemen dressed as late 18C French noblemen, with wigs and all, entered the basement of the far-left activist group occupied Kruses gate 7.
The weird thing is that most of the people there were so far out on drugs they hardly noticed us. They rest seemed to think we were a bunch of gay guys indulging ourselves in the latest decandency. (Kruses gate 7 would be the only suitable place in Oslo for that kind of enactment at the time.) Anyway, the music and atmosphere was great, and raves were now part of our lives. A couple of hours later we left to rejoin the Marie Antionettes at the actual after-party.
Raves went mainstream not so long after, with the (legal) night club Kristiania being the main venue for a few years thereafter. (That's another story).
The Operaballet still exists. Pics from one of the more recent events:
https://www.operaballet.no/
As for Kruses gate 7, the occupiers were evicted a few years later, after numerous court cases ending in a ruling by the Supreme court. The property was soon after listed/given protected status, and then restored to its former glory as a residency:
http://www.artemisia.no/arc/3/omraade/oslo/kruses.gate.7.html
