Somehow, despite my widely established love of converted buses, I only learned today about the Norwegian cultural tradition which involves groups of students creating party buses to help celebrate before their final week of exams every year, between the 21st of April and the 17th of May.
The buses are part of a period called “russefeiring” which translates to “russ celebration.” Russ is the Norwegian term for the group of students taking part in the celebrations which are basically the same as our high-school seniors.
Where many high-school seniors in America plan for senior trips, the Norwegian students who opt to create a Russebusser (“Russ Bus”) work together to purchase buses or vans (Russebiler) which are often painted and decorated similarly to party buses styled by teens. That means lots of video game and pop culture based themes.
The buses are typically only used by the affluent students in metropolitan areas like Oslo, so the students typically go all out. Some even include full stage speaker setups and what appears to be a stage.
The students work in groups because the project is not cheap. Typically these russebusser are purchased a few years before being used for russefeiring, so that the students have time to make all the improvements they wish. On average, the buses can cost anywhere between $1,500 per person and $25,000 per person. The price can be kept down by deciding to purchase the russebussers used by the students graduating before them, allowing these buses to also act as heirlooms within schools.
As you might guess, these buses are the location of plenty of debauchery during the russefeiring period, which may explain why Americans don’t adopt the tradition. Still, it is exciting and enlightening to see a tradition with buses playing such a central role.