Since 1964, Kongsberg has hosted Kongsberg Jazzfestival, an annual international jazz festival.

Recent winter sports athletes of the Kongsberg region include Olympic snowboarders Stine Brun Kjeldaas and Halvor Lunn ; cross-country ski sprinter Børre Næss of the village Efteløt ; and ski jumper Sigurd Pettersen of nearby municipality Rollag ( 60 km / 37 mi north of Kongsberg ).

Inventor of the modern ski binding, Norwegian-American skier and Olympic skiing coach Hjalmar Hvam, was born in Kongsberg in 1902.

In 1987, a bronze sculpture of Birger Ruud, by the Norwegian sculptor Per Ung, was set up in Ruud ’ s native town of Kongsberg, and in 1991 he was awarded the Egebergs Ærespris for his achievements in ski jumping and alpine skiing.

* Kongsberg test fires Naval Strike Missiles – Jane's Navy International, 8 August 2006

Ole Krag, captain in the Norwegian Army and director of Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk ( the government weapons factory ), therefore continued the development of small arms, as he had since at least 1866.

Specialists from Raytheon, Simrad ( now Kongsberg Maritime ), and Hydroacoustics, Inc .; Marty Klein of MIT and Klein Associates ( a producer of side scan sonar ); and Dr. Ira Dyer of MIT's Department of Ocean Engineering were all on hand to examine the data.

Compilers were made for Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk's SM-4 and Norsk Data Nord-10 / ND-100 mini-computers.

A silver mine opened at Kongsberg.

Aside from mining in Kongsberg, Røros and Løkken, industrialization came with the first textile mills that were built in Norway in the middle of the 19th century.

In 1963, Jan Mowill initiated the development at Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk in Norway.

Anthophyllite occurs as brownish, fibrous or lamellar masses with hornblende in mica-schist at Kongsberg in Norway and some other localities.

The Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal involved a subsidiary of Toshiba and the Norwegian company Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk.

Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania said " What Toshiba and Kongsberg did was ransom the security of the United States for $ 517 million.

Companies like Concurrent Technologies Corporation, DRS Laurel Technologies, ITSI Biosciences, Kongsberg Defense and more throughout the region are embracing cutting edge technology and scientific progress to create products that make life easier, better and greener.

Kongsberg Satellite Services of Norway, among several other external partners, provides ground station services for Radarsat-2 including the provision of data under Canadian Space Agency science programmes.

In 1688, it was owned by the director of the Kongsberg Silver Mines, Schlanbusch, and remained in his family until 1781.

Classic Kongsberg wire-silver, collected in the 1980s.

The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kongsberg.

The rural municipalities of Ytre Sandsvær and Øvre Sandsvær were merged into the municipality of Kongsberg on 1 January 1964.

Today, Kongsberg is perhaps best known for being the home of Norway's major defense contractor, Kongsberg Gruppen, formerly Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk.

Two of its well known products were the Kongsberg Colt and the Krag-Jørgensen rifle.

Kongsberg is particularly known for its old silver mines, from which roughly of silver was extracted between the discovery of silver ore seams in 1623, and the last year of mining, in 1957.

In 1987, however, the state-owned Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk () suffered a major financial crisis as well as accusations of breaching the CoCom rules by selling sensitive technology to the Soviet bloc.

Today, the separate firms thrive as one of Norway's main high-tech industrial clusters, centering on the defence and maritime company Kongsberg Gruppen which is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Kongsberg is also home to the Mint of Norway (), which exclusively makes Norwegian coins.

The neighbouring municipalities of Kongsberg are Flesberg to the north ; Øvre Eiker and Hof to the east ; Lardal, Siljan, and Skien to the south ; and Sauherad and Notodden to the west.

The Kangaroo Hoppet is a leg of the Worldloppet cross-country race series which is conducted on the last Saturday of August each year, hosted by Falls Creek in Victoria.

Known as one of the top ski resorts in North America, Silver Star also has a large cross-country skiing area which hosted a 1991 FIS Cross-Country World Cup event.

The swimming was held in Aldershot Lido, Maida Gymnasium hosted the fencing, and the cross-country equestrian event was held at Tweseldown.

Recreation facilities in Kananaskis include several campgrounds, a golf course, a hotel, a holiday ranch, two alpine ski areas ( Nakiska, which hosted alpine skiing and freestyle moguls skiing during the 1988 Winter Olympics and Fortress Mountain ) and a competitive cross-country ski area ( the Canmore Nordic Centre ) that the public can use.

Meanwhile, the Veliko Polje hosted the biathlon, cross-country skiing, and the cross-country skiing part of the Nordic combined event.

In addition, the school's facilities include 2 full court gymnasiums, a 25 meter indoor pool, a state of the art weight and aerobics room with full-time trainers, athletic training room with full-time staff, full locker rooms for women, men and visiting teams, The Miller Bugliari ' 52 World Cup Field ( which has hosted World Cup practices for the ' 94 Italian National team and the ' 02 United States National team ) for soccer and baseball, Parsons Field ( which offers stadium seating, a press-box and a scoreboard with a sound system ) for football, lacrosse and track and field events, total that allow for a cross-country course, 12 tennis courts, and numerous practice fields including the John Babbitt ' 07 Memorial Field.

During the 1970s, the town hosted one of the largest cross-country motorcycle races in the nation, " The Denver 100 ," which was a successful fundraiser for the local volunteer fire department.

The resort was created for the 2002 Winter Olympics, and during the games it hosted the biathlon, cross-country skiing and the cross country skiing portion of the Nordic combined events.

During the 2002 games Soldier Hollow hosted the biathlon, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined events.

The venue itself hosted 64, 160 biathlon spectators, 99, 320 cross-country spectators, and 1, 794 Nordic combined spectators during these events.

During the 2002 Winter Paralympics the venue hosted the biathlon and cross-country events.

Parliament Hill is renowned as a cross-country running venue and hosted the 2009 English National Championships.

It is also the location of the West Catholic Athletic League's second cross-country league meet every year, which is hosted by nearby Saint Francis High School.

Since 2006 Ewelme has hosted the annual Chiltern Chase, a charity run of two multi-terrain ( cross-country ) courses: one of and the other of.