The Knutepunkt is an annual role-playing game conference held annually in the Nordic countries since 1997. It has been a vital institution in establishing a Nordic role-playing identity, and in establishing the concept of "Nordic larp" as a unique approach. Though the conference started out strictly as a Live action role-playing (larp for short) event, it has since embraced role-playing games in a more general fashion. Today the conference still has an emphasis on larp, but programs devoted to traditional tabletop role-playing as well as newer arrivals such as freeform are common.

A live action role-playing avant-garde movement, which pursues radical experimentation and the recognition of role-playing as a form of art, has been connected to the Knutepunkt conferences. The scope of the Knutepunkt conference has expanded rather rapidly over the last few years with participants showing up from numerous non-Scandinavian countries. Since about 2003 Knutepunkt has seen participants from the United States, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Russia, Estonia, Belarus, Belgium, the Netherlands, Israel, Czech Republic, United Kingdom and Austria, among others.

Name

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Knutepunkt is Norwegian for "meeting point" or "knot point" as it can be directly translated as, and locally the term is translated into Swedish Knutpunkt, Danish Knudepunkt and Finnish Solmukohta. The name of the convention refers to the point where two pieces of rope or string joins in a knot, and varies with the organizing country.

History

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The organising country changes each year in this order: Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

Event Location Notes
Knutepunkt 1997 Oslo, Norway
Knutpunkt 1998 Stockholm, Sweden
Knudepunkt 1999 Copenhagen, Denmark
Solmukohta 2000 Helsinki, Finland
Knutepunkt 2001 Oslo, Norway
Knutpunkt 2002 Stockholm, Sweden
Knudepunkt 2003 (Feb. 2003) Copenhagen, Denmark [1]
Solmukohta 2004 (Feb. 2004) Espoo, Finland [2]
Knutepunkt 2005 (Feb. 2005) Oslo, Norway [3]
Knutpunkt 2006 (Apr. 2006) Barnens Ö (Children's Island), Sweden [4]
Knudepunkt 2007 (Feb. 2007) Helsinge, Denmark [5]
Solmukohta 2008 (Apr. 2008) Nurmijärvi, Finland [6]
Knutepunkt 2009 (16-19 Apr. 2009) Haraldvangen, Norway [7]
Knutpunkt 2010 (Apr. 2010) Katrineholm, Sweden
Knudepunkt 2011 (Feb. 2011) Helsinge, Denmark
Solmukohta 2012 (Apr. 2012) Nurmijärvi, Finland [8]
Knutepunkt 2013 (Apr. 2013) Haraldvangen, Norway [9]
Knutpunkt 2014 (3-6 Apr 2014) Halland, Sweden
Knudepunkt 2015 (12-15 Feb. 2015) Knutepunkt Village (Midtfyns gymnasium,
Ringe fri- og efterskole, Nordagerskolen,
Midtfyns fritidscenter), Denmark
[10]
Solmukohta 2016 (9-14 Mar. 2016) Finland [11]
Knutepunkt 2017 (23-26 Feb. 2017) Oslo, Norway
Knutpunkt 2018 (15-18 Mar. 2018) Lund, Sweden
Knudepunkt 2019 (8-11 Feb. 2019) Vejen, Denmark [12]
Solmukohta 2020 (2–5 Apr. 2020) Tampere, Finland
Knutepunkt 2021 (7-20 Oct. 2021) Oslo, Norway

Publications

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Since 2001 the Knutepunkt conferences have been accompanied by books on larp theory, with the exception of the 2002 conference in Stockholm.

Video documentation

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In 2011 the Knutepunkt conference was documented in a number of videos now published on the Knudepunkt 2011 Vimeo Channel.

References

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  1. ^ "Knudepunkt 2003". Archived from the original on 11 December 2005.
  2. ^ "Solmukohta•04". Archived from the original on 18 January 2006.
  3. ^ "Knutepunkt 2005". Archived from the original on 2006-02-09.
  4. ^ "Knutpunkt 2006". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
  5. ^ "knudepunkt 2007: from denmark with love". Archived from the original on 9 July 2006.
  6. ^ "Solmukohta 2008 – looking ahead". Archived from the original on 12 October 2015.
  7. ^ "Knutepunkt 2009 | What matters". Archived from the original on 20 February 2013.
  8. ^ "Solmukohta 2012". Archived from the original on 14 October 2015.
  9. ^ "KP2013 – Welcome to Knutepunkt 2013". Archived from the original on 2013-05-30.
  10. ^ "Knudepunkt village". Google Maps.
  11. ^ "Solmukohta 2016". Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  12. ^ "Knudepunkt 2019 – Enter the playground". Archived from the original on 2019-03-21.
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