The good news: tickets that usually hard to come by, including those multi-day passes, are still readily available as the annual four-day Dark Season Blues begins today. The bad news: if those tickets go unsold, there may not be a chance to buy any next year.

Longyearbyen’s biggest annual music festival still features its bright vibe for its 17th year as the town begins the polar night this weekend, with a largely familiar event schedule and a lineup of 16 returning/new performers from Norway and abroad. But lurking beneath are difficulties that last year caused organizers to question if the festival can continue.

This is the sweet sixteen year for Dark Season Blues – especially for listeners – as Svalbard’s most popular annual music event opens Thursday night with the oddity of having no events or festival passes sold out.

Fifteen. An age of intense emotional and intellectual moodiness.

Not always a great trait for a nuclear family, but one raging with potential for the longtime family of musicians who will reunite in various forms as Dark Season Blues, Svalbard’s biggest music festival, celebrates its landmark 15 anniversary that started Wednesday. This year’s five-day festival features 20 bands performing a record 43 concerts, with an emphasis on revisiting and expanding on a decade-and-a-half of history.

There’s a famous band celebrating its 50th anniversary by making a comeback. An obscure local one celebrating maybe its 50-day anniversary. And some visiting veterans sharing the stage with a new group of local youths.