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Sweden and Denmark festivals list

Posted by (Columbus, USA) on

For planning purposes I put together this list of major festivals in Sweden and Denmark. I thought I would share in case it's useful to anyone. Caveats: these are mostly just the large festivals and I'm sure I've missed many. To avoid screwing up your trip please independently verify any dates here before using them!

• Distortion music festival, Copenhagen, June 3-7
• Midsummer in Sweden:. Sweden’s cities become deserted during The Midsummer weekend. Many people begin their yearly five-week vacation around Midsummer Day and head to the countryside. Saturday, June 20
• Foteviken Viking Market, Malmo Sweden, June 22-28, 2020
• Riverboat jazz festival, Denmark lake district, 24. - 28. JUNI 2020
• Tinderbox music festival, electronic, pop, rock, indie and urban, Odense Denmark, 25th – 27th June 2020
• Copenhagen jazz festival, 260K, Friday, July 3, 2020 - Sunday, July 12, 2020
• Roskilde music festival, ‘music, activism, arts’, Saturday 27 June until Sunday 5 July
• Music vid Siljan SWE (chamber, jazz and folk), traditional folk music, classical music, church concerts and traditional dancing to fiddle music in various village community houses, One week beginning week 27 (~Monday, June 29, 2020)
• Viking moot, market & reenactments, Aarhaus, Jul 25, 2020 - Jul 26, 2020
• Stockholm Pride, 27 July - 2 August 2020
• Ribe DEN warrior fest, late July
• Gotland chamber music festival, Visby, July 20-26 2020
• Medieval week, Visby, 40,000 visitors, August 2-9, 2020
• Strom electronic music festival, Copenhagen, date still tbd one week early Aug
• Shakespeare festival, Helsinger castle Denmark, August 1-16, 2020
• Smukfest music fest DEN (near Aarhus), 50,000 visitors, Wed, Aug 5, 2020 – Sun, Aug 9, 2020
• Odense DEN HC Andersen Festivals, Aug 16-23
• Copenhagen Pride, 18 – 23 August 2020
• Copenhagen cooking and food festival, 90,000 visitors in ten days, Aug 21-30
• Tender Festival (south of Ribe) folk music ‘folk, traditional, Americana’, Jutland, Aug 27-30 2020
• Aarhus DEN festival, art, August 28–September 06, 2020
• Kraftskivor Swedes celebrate end of summer in August by eating crayfish and aquavit

Posted by
28062 posts

Thank you, Lia. It is most certainly a useful list for me.

Posted by
6970 posts

A few larger events you missed:

  • February: Winter markets. What the Christmas markets are to Germany, the Winter markets are to Scandinavia. They are many and some are very old, like the Distingsmarknad that dates back to the Viking era. But the largest and probably most well known is Jokkmokk's market, held from the first thursday in February to the following Saturday every year since 1605.
  • February: Lent, not as important since the reformation. But if you are the area you should try a semla, a traditional lent dessert served in every café.
  • April: Uppsala Magic and Comedy Festical
  • April 30: Valborg (Walpurgis Night). A prechristian tradition of celebrating the arrival of spring. Celebrated everywhere, but most in Uppsala where the city turns into a one day festival.
  • Late June/Early July: Almedalsveckan, a huge political festival (Democracy week) in Visby.
  • Summer: Herräng Dance Camp, claimed to be the biggest swing dance festival in the world.
  • Autumn: Kulturnatten (Culture night). Many town arrange culture nights, a night and day of all kinds of cultural nights. Largest one is in Uppsala, http://www.kulturnattenuppsala.se/en/
  • August: Gothenburg culture festival.
  • Late September: Gothenburg Book Fair, the largest culture and literature event in the Nordics.
  • October: Uppsala International Short Film Festival.
  • November: Allt ljus på Uppsala (All lights on Uppsala): A light festival held in november with light installations all over the city.
  • December 13: Lucia (St Lucy's Day), celebrated everywhere in Sweden.

(I've excluded music and sports events to keep the list a bit shorter, but if anyone have questions about those I can of course add a few of them as well.)

Posted by
161 posts

Malmöfestivalen August 7-14, 2020 (mostly food and music)

Posted by
396 posts

Updating my original list to 2021, when I was able to find the dates

• Distortion music festival, Copenhagen, Week of first Saturday in June
• Midsummer in Sweden:. Sweden’s cities become deserted during The Midsummer weekend. Many people begin their yearly five-week vacation around Midsummer Day and head to the countryside. Saturday, June 26 2021
• Foteviken Viking Market, Malmo Sweden, late June or early July
• Riverboat jazz festival, Denmark lake district, 23. - 27. JUNI 2021
• Tinderbox music festival, electronic, pop, rock, indie and urban, Odense Denmark, 24-26 June 2021
• Copenhagen jazz festival, 260,000 attend, starts the first Friday of July and runs for ten straight days.
• Roskilde music festival, ‘music, activism, arts’, June 26 to July 3, 2021
• Music vid Siljan Sweden (chamber, jazz and folk), traditional folk music, classical music, church concerts and traditional dancing to fiddle music in various village community houses, One week beginning week 27 (~ first week of July)
• Viking moot, market & reenactments, Aarhaus, the weekend closest to July 28, the feast day of St. Olaf
• Ribe Denmark warrior fest, late July, can’t find 2021 date
• Stockholm Pride, 2 - 8 August 2021
• Gotland chamber music festival, Visby, can’t find 2021 late July?
• Medieval week, Visby, 40,000 visitors, week 32 approx. Aug 8-14 2021
• Strom electronic music festival, Copenhagen, date tbd one week early Aug
• Shakespeare festival, Helsinger castle Denmark, first half Aug? 2021
• Smukfest music fest Denmark (near Aarhus), 50,000 attendees, 4-8 Aug 2021
• Odense Denmark HC Andersen Festivals, Aug 22-29 2021
• Copenhagen 2021 - Celebrating WorldPride & EuroGames Aug 12 - Aug 22, 2021 ·
• Copenhagen cooking and food festival, 90,000 people over/ten days, 20-29 Aug 2021
• Tender Festival (south of Ribe) folk music ‘folk, traditional, americana’, Jutland, Aug 26-29 2021
• Aarhus Festuge, Denmark, arts and culture, August to early September weeks 35-36
• Kraftskivor Swedes celebrate end of summer in August by eating crayfish and aquavit

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