Arctic Deeply: Our series begins

Meet the North’s series with Arctic Deeply has begun.

The first segment is called “When Coal Leaves Center Stage in Longyearbyen”

Have a read – discover the singers and miners who keep Svalbard going.

It was below freezing inside the derelict mining building that looked down over Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Coal dust powdered the wooden floor. The corrugated metal walls enclosed a control room, ceiling tracks and tangles of steel. This building used to collect cable cars full of coal and send them down to the harbor. It was abandoned long ago, but for one night in June – this night – it becomes a concert hall jammed with locals dressed in down jackets and brightly coloured winter hats. Coal – the world’s most maligned fossil fuel and the foundation of this community – was about to take center stage.