The Bjørnson Festival of international literature is held in Molde and Nesset every August since 1992, and is named in honour of the local Nobel Prize in Literature winner Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.
In 1997 the festival's president of honour Knut Ødegård opened The grove of peace at the King's birch in Molde.
Visiting authors (and tree planters at the grove) include Wole Soyinka, Yasar Kemal, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Seamus Heaney, and Thor Heyerdahl, amongst others.
