Totally Stockholm 1
Heaven Up Here Festival Words: Austin Maloney A l
aid-back music festival, with a small but tasty line-up at Färgfabriken. We speak to Clara Gyökeres. So you’ve been organising shows essentially forever, but where did the idea to launch a festival come from? The idea is not entirely new. There’s been Heaven Up Here festivals in the past, but then called Konstoch Musikfestivalen. You could say that HUH is really just a long festival, spread out throughout the year. Since the live music scene in Stockholm right now is somewhat threatened, we wanted to do what we could to contribute with something, doing what we do best - live shows with great bands. Can you talk us through the line-up? For sure! We have booked five bands that make a really cool line-up. We’ve got Hater, Saigon, Hanged Man, Ivy, and Duschpalatset together with a super dance-friendly DJ. All of these have been playing at Heaven Up Here-gigs before, but never together. We’re stoked to have them play at the festival and with a line-up like this, we feel very lucky. Outside of the bands, what else can we expect from the festival in terms of food etc? The true Heaven Up Here spirit, we’ll have two bars, tasty food with a vego friendly approach, the beautiful venue Färgfabriken just by the water. A festival not like others, Heaven Up Here Festival is really chill, come-as-you-are-style. The festival price is only 150 kronor, was it important for you to keep a low price? Yes, we chose to sell some early bird tickets for only 150 kroner. The ticket pricing is really important, we feel like we want to be able to offer a super lineup for a great price, so the size of your wallet is a non-factor. For five bands, the price is just to die for. IVY Heaven Up Here Festival, Färgfabriken, Aug 17 Bokbordet Stockholm Words: Austin Maloney For the 29th year running, one Sunday in August will be dedicated to a gigantic book fair. Gunilla Berglund, coordinator at Bokbordet tells us more. With the Bokbordet event now 29 years old, how does it feel to be running an important cultural event like this? It feels great, as I am a person who just loves books and love to read. 2017 was supposed to be the last year for Bokbordet. Then my working partner Claes Karlsson, and Liljevalchs director Mårten Castenfors came with the brilliant idea that it still could go on and be on Drottninggatan and go in to the courtyard of Norra Latin to make that area an attractive place to be. So now it is the property owners in that area who pays for the event and not the City of Stockholm. Can you tell us a little about this year’s programme? This year is specially dedicated to the children. Usually we have had very few programmes for children but this year we will have theatre, music, the children’s book-bus, and children’s authors will present books. All of this will happen in the garden in front of the main entrance of Norra Latin. In Centralbadet’s garden we will have four authors presenting their books, we will also have a programme around ‘Stockholm läser’ (‘Stockholm Reads’). There’s a book that every year is chosen to be the book of Stockholm, that everyone is supposed to read and discuss. This year’s book is För Lydia by Gun-Britt Sundström. At the schoolyard there will be jazz music from 12:00 till 16:00. And on the ground floor of Norra Latin there will be a literary café, where there will be presentations around famous Swedish authors. Bokbordet helps people share and pass their favourite books around? Do you think that sharing is the most important part of the event? Of course sharing is very good, but the most important thing is all the conversations around books that take place. Young people and old people talk about their reading experiences and discuss. It is a joy to see and listen to all the talks. How should people prepare to get the best day out of Bokbordet? If you are looking for a special book that is hard to find, come early. Stroll along the street and into Norra Latin´s schoolyard. Take your time, you will find books that you never knew existed. It is so much fun, and books last forever. Bokbordet Stockholm, Norra Bantorget to Drottninggatan, Aug 18 9 Photo: Nalin/Östberg