Located on the edge of the Arctic Circle, the shallow section of Norway’s Plura cave has a max depth of 110 feet and an accessible dry air chamber 1,400 feet—the distance of four football fields—under the Scandinavian Mountains. The fresh water is so cold that, to access it in winter, it’s necessary to chainsaw through the ice.

So, how could anyone livestream a concert from here?

The owners of technical dive center Plura Valley in Rana, Norway, Ina and Jani Santala Jorbru, are no strangers to the extraordinary. In 2019, they set a Guinness World Record by getting married in the cave with 67 cave-diver attendees. So, when someone proposed they host a cave concert, they jumped at the challenge.

The couple enlisted the help of several cave-diving musicians in their circle, including Hakon Erlandsen, a saxophonist who has performed at the summit of Mount Everest, and Italian bassist Davide Bertolini. Erlandsen wrote the music, composing a mix of sounds from his experiences as a cave diver to convey the feeling of overhead diving to those who’d never done it before.

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The stars were aligning, but a concert inside the Plura cave chamber was easier said than done. Safety was a top priority. Aside from the logistical dangers the cave posed, there was the 36-degree F Arctic water to consider.

James Draker, founder of Evolved Diving in Fort White, Florida, has dived the Plura cave and attests to the difficulty of its freezing temperatures and the challenge of wearing thick protective gear in technical diving.

“To put on all those layers is cumbersome, and it diminishes your ability to hold and feel a line,” he explains. “I tried to wear as little extra stuff as possible to feel comfortable because I was in a new environment. The first day, I wore just the [glove] liners without a heated layer, and after about 45 minutes, I was bone-chillingly cold. I was trying to do things with my fingers, and I was so numb I couldn’t tell if I was pushing a button or not. It makes it very difficult to do anything.”

Safety prep for the event was exhaustive. All participating divers had to be fully cave-certified, have cold-water experience and complete a safety dive prior to the concert. The Plura Valley team also staged 12 extra cylinders on the route into the chamber. To help check divers in and out, they installed military-grade wired telephones normally used in field combat.

With strict safety measures in place, the next consideration for the team was the technical components.

In the weeks before the concert, volunteers floated the fiber-optic cables required to produce an internet connection with buoys along the cave ceiling. They also carefully transported into the chamber all concert equipment including instruments, speakers, lights and bass amplifier. The team worked with Santi to design dry bags equipped with a custom inflator and dump valve for the electric bass and double bass guitars.

They drove in Seacraft scooters with internal power outlets to run speakers and lights and two additional car batteries for the bass amplifier, which required more wattage. Once in the chamber, however, the concert team discovered that small air pockets inside the batteries had collapsed.

“All divers who participated had to be fully cave-certified, have cold-water experience and complete a safety dive prior to the concert.”

“My biggest fear, without a doubt, was running out of batteries or something happening to the live stream,” Erlandsen says. “It was suspenseful.”

But in the end, all their efforts paid off. When the first notes of the saxophone echoed through the Plura cave chamber, the whole world could watch it live on YouTube.

Jani Santala Jorbru was moved as he watched the 45-minute show from his front-row seat in the cave. “We had worked for four years,” he says. “Finally seeing it happen was so emotional that I just cried.”

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The event impressed Draker, who hopes it will inspire others to move beyond traditional reef diving into more unique environments.

“There is some really interesting diving that happens in places you wouldn’t normally think of,” he says. “And there are people like Ina and Jani with passion and drive to do things that are special, that go above and beyond.”

For their next project, Plura Valley is partnering with another local cave operator to host a dry (no alcohol) cave rave to raise awareness about caves among young people. In doing so, they continue to unite the community, expand the cave diving experience and push the limits of what’s possible.