I visited the Korean Culture Festival at Kungsträdgården in Stockholm. K-Pop. Martial arts. Dance. Food, and more. Oh, and after I got back home I talked to my brother who was back in town for a few days, and he told me, hey, we visited the Korean Culture Festival! So I had to look through my photos to see if I might have a photo of him. But no luck there.
There was a festival in Stockholm earlier in the Summer. Kulturfestivalen. There were at least five stages set up with artists performing from the early afternoon to late at night. For whatever reason I didnt go, but as the festival got under way I did check out a few places, but it was a bit early on, so not that much was happening. These photos are from Skeppsbron, Norrbro, Kungsträdgården and Strandvägen. The last two photos shows a photo exhibiton called Winners and Losers in the Swedish Nature, done by Naturfotograferna.
The Tulip Festival took place yesterday in Handen. The weather was fantastic. Several hundred people filled up Poseidon's square for a few hours. The performance group ReAct! entertained the crowds. If you walked through the big tent you could pick yourself a free bouquet of tulips, and the queue for that never ended. So sit back and have a look at the slideshow. It is 77 photos of tulips, people, tulips, people and more tulips. If you can't see the slideshow press here to see the photos at flickr.
There's a folk music festival at the old village in the Tyresta National Park every Summer. The Swedish name for such an event is Spelmansstämma. Not really my thing, and it has always collided with a few other more interesting events, but not this year so I jumped on the steel horse, stopped in Handen to ask a friend to tag along and off we went. We arrived at 1300 hours just minutes before the event started. I counted a few hundred people including a few familiar faces. It was very hot and sunny and we found the warmest cafe table and enjoyed a sandwich and some coffee as we started shooting. After the coffee we strolled around listening to all the music. The musicians probably had the most fun. They walked around with their instruments ready and formed new groups all afternoon. At one time I heard at least three different folk songs from three different directions! More photos tomorrow when I'm done with the editing.
In an effort to save the old Folkpark in Handen, a few local organisations, Levande Zon, RoJteatern,Handens museum and ABF Södertörn decided to set up a cultural festival with rock music, dance music, theatre and more at a fe different scenes on Saturday evening. It only took a few weeks, and yesterday saw the first (annual?), Kulturparksfestival. I was there for a couple of hours and here is a slideshow with 24 photos. Photos of the bands Ban Bianca and Smash playing at Gula Villan. A street performer known as Mr. Pink. And An American singer&songwriter called Esther Rose Parkes performing at the Handen Museum. Dance music from Doktor Krall next to the RoJ Theatre. Oh, and you could also try the legendary Ultra buns baked by local legend Tompa Eken. The weather wasn't the best with grey skies and some rain but it was still a good start!
The annual rock festival in the park in Tungelsta is under way. The first artist to take to the stage was Ebba Lundell. It was her first ever live performance. She has a great voice. She sang five songs, a couple of covers, and a few afew that she had written herself. More photos to come in the next week or so.
I visited the Brandbergen festival in Handen during our National Day earlier in the week. And here are a collage of snaps plus a slideshow with photos from that visit. There was a tivoli with rides for the children. A lot of food were offered. Some of the political parties were presest as were a few local organisations. I watched a dance show, chatted with a few familiar people, including the local Santa!, a clown and a blacksmith. I also met a few new faces, including Margareta Exström (the lady with the hat), and of course the cute police officer.
The annual music festival in the park in Tungelsta took place yesterday. The event is organised by Musikcentralen that celebrated thirty years. A few of the original members are still active including my brother. It was a perfect day and evening, except for one guy who had too much to drink and managed to fall into the stream, but the ambulance crew took care of him. The sun was shining, the park was filled to capacity. The local soccer club Tungelsta IF made some money by selling hot dogs and burgers. In this collage you can see some of the bands that performed. Including Parkförvaltningen. The Clifftones. The Tungelsta Gubbs, (they were a big hit as they had a lot of wifes, ex-wifes and offspring in the crowd), played a few songs, I recorded a video that you can see on Vimeo. Also performing was Simon Peter and the medicine men, including my friend Birdman . Elemental 6, and Family X. I will show you more photos from the park tomorrow.
I visited a Summer Festival on Saturday. In Brandbergen. That's where I met Jacob and Åsa. Two police officers working from the Brandbergen station. It was a warm and sunny day, and everyone seemed happy, so it wasn't a very hard day for the officers. But they were in fact bribed during the day. I happened to overhear that conversation, so I demanded the same bribe, and a minute later we were all enjoying a free ice cream! I also met the new Mayor Martina Mossberg and we talked about politics for a while. I mentioned that I would blog about the festival and Martina told me that she had seen some of my photos. Two good bands were playing. Indoors you could listen to The Taxi Stand Steel Band. I have seen them before and they are always fantastic. The other band I saw was Doktor Krall. They play music from the 50s and 60s. They were joined by a singer called Tess Mercedes. Everyone gets hungry during a festival so there was a BBQ run by a local association called Samarkand. They got a bit exited when they noticed my camera, and a bit disappointed when I wasn't shooting for a newspaper. You could also enjoy African food. I took a portrait of a young man called Hesam, he is a police volunteer and a future police offer, we discussed photography which is one of his new hobbies. I also snapped a photo of a colorful clown who was busy making balloon animals for visiting kids. To see all photos (including a mishap for the police offocers), check out the slideshow above.
