Because of the distance, the tournament was held on a Sunday; this caused some criticism, and to compensate it was decided not to collect entrance fees.

Several times the venues had had too little snow and Fritz Huitfeldt and Hans Krag proposed building a new hill at Besserudmyra.

After half a year of planning, the general assembly of the Association for the Promotion of Skiing approved the move in late 1891.

[5] The first competition was held on 30 January 1892, and was spectated by between fifteen and twenty thousand people,[6] who saw jumpers reach 15 to 21.5 meters.

[7][8] The original hill had a knoll just after the take-off, which gave the psychological feeling of falling and made landing more difficult.

It was therefore decided to change the profile slightly to make the hill safer and allow more jumpers to land properly.

[10] During the 1910s it had become common in the United States to build jumps with a scaffold superstructure for the in-run, and this had been described as an abomination in the Norwegian press.

[5] This resulted in massive negative reactions in the press, and it was the public's opinion that ski jumping was to be done in natural hills.

[11] The hill was subsequently expanded slightly a few times afterwards, including blasting it steeper, chopping it wider, and covering the landing slope with earth and sowing grass to improve the profile.

[15] The in-run was rebuilt; while it previously had been a mess of open, wooden structures, it was shelled in, painted white and received an elevator.

[17] These upgrades resulted in an artificial lake being constructed in the off-run, which became a recreational and swimming venue for the city's residents.

To allow for longer jumps, the take-off needed to be moved 10 meters (33 ft) back, and the lake dug deeper, with new concrete stands being built into the sides.

Combined with the tower being built taller, this gave a 56-meter (184 ft) height difference between the start and the off-run, allowing for the desired lengths.

Experience from among other things Salpausselkä in Lahti, Finland, showed that this could be partially combated by building the jump into the hill.

[26] The city council decided to grant NOK 52.8 million to upgrade Holmenkollen, including Holmenkollbakken, for the 2009 World Championships.

[27] Oslo lost the vote in the International Ski Federation (FIS) against Liberec, Czech Republic, on 4 June 2004.

[32] In December 2005, the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage gave permission for the tower to be demolished, on the condition it was replaced by a new in-run with a similar architectural quality and retain its function as a landmark.

[33] The city council made the final decision to apply for the World Championships and build a new hill on 1 March 2006.

[35] The municipality issued an architectural design competition to rebuild the hill; Julien De Smedt and Florian Kosche's proposal was selected among 104 entrants.

City Commissioner For Business and Culture, Anette Wiig Bryn of the Progress Party, had to leave her position because of the cost overruns.

[40] On 1 January, 2018, Holmenkollen hosted alpine skiing for the first time when World Cup parallel slalom events for men and women were held under the lights on a temporary 180-metre (590 ft) 19-gate course constructed inside the ski jumping arena, replacing a similar event previously held in Munich.

The hill is 375 m (1,230 ft) above sea level; the venue is owned by Oslo Municipality and operated by the Association for the Promotion of Skiing.

[50] Originally, the style scores were secret, creating public discussions about the fairness of judges in even races.

[53] The Holmenkollen Ski Festival has been regarded as the de facto World Championships prior to the 1924 Winter Olympics.

[54] Oslo was awarded the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1930; with exception of Sweden's Erik Rylandet who finished fifth, Norway had the top ten positions.

The exact number of people attending the ski jumping event on 24 February is not known, but it somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000,[56] with the official report stating 143,000.

[57] The event was won by Arnfinn Bergmann ahead of Torbjørn Falkanger, both from Norway, and Karl Holmström of Sweden.

On the day of the Ski Festival, the jumpers collectively demanded NOK 150,000 in increased prize money, or threatened to not jump.

[21] From 1963, a temporary, small in-run was built down the southern grandstand, which allowed skiers and divers to make a jump and land in the water.

[18] Starting in 1983 was Ta sjansen, which was televised annually by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and became Sommerkollen's most popular show.