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Travel

Originally published on Thursday, 15th August 2013

WAY OUT WEST

Gothenburg, Sweden

Way Out West - Gothenburg

We’ve been off-roading a bit in the festival stakes this summer – we’ve said bye bye to the British contingent and hello to some lesser-known, Euro festivals. We hit up Worldwide in the South of France earlier this summer for our fill of dance music, and, last weekend, we headed for cooler climes up north for Sweden’s biggest music festival, Way Out West, in Gothenburg. In a nutshell it was three days of brilliant live music, city exploring, mad after-parties… and a lot of Fjällräven rucksacks.

In a sentence

They Say: A three-day, eco, city-festival situated in the heart of Gothenburg with emerging and established artists.

We Say: The cream of Sweden’s cool crop unite for a three-day festival of incredible music and even better after parties.

The City: Gothenburg

Despite being Sweden’s second-largest city, Gothenburg doesn’t feel like a sprawling metropolis, instead it’s accessible with a small-town charm. This is exactly what you want for a city festival too – you can split your time between the festival and the city as it’s really easy to get around. There’s a reliable tram system, which operates until a party-friendly 4am, and it’s also easy to hail down cabs (their version of the black cab all take cards, too). The canal-side streets reminded us a bit of Germany, and a bit of Switzerland, all brown brick and pointed roofs, outdoor cafés and cobbled streets. If Stockholm is Sweden’s London, Gothenburg is its Bristol. The music scene here clearly has the edge over the rest of the country – the underground music scene is wild, exciting and key to the success of Way Out West (more on this later).

Way Out West - Gothenburg

The Hotel: Clarion Hotel Post

After a hard day’s festivaling, there’s nothing like returning to a clean, memory foam, high-cotton thread count bed, especially when it’s in a new, modern palace, like the Clarion Post. Dubbed as a “business hotel” – but without the sterile, functional vibe – the hotel is a great mix of old and new, being housed in what was once the old Post Office building. It’s dark, slick, and club-like (the reception looks like a glass bar) and has excellent food credentials: chef Marcus Samuelsson takes care of Norda Bar & Grill, where West Sweden meets East America, and there’s also a raw food and sushi bar, vRÅ. As one of the official Stay Out West venues, the bar is heaving at night. For some R&R, head straight to the heated, rooftop pool.

Way Out West - Gothenburg

The Festival 

Way Out West:The festival is held in the leafy, forest-like Slottsskogen park (think Victoria Park, but with pine trees galore and fresher air). It’s an appropriate venue, as the festival prides itself on being eco-friendly – no maps, for example, just an app which works offline which was great – and the food offering is veggie-only. We liked that the three stages were close enough to flit between act to act and there weren’t many scheduling clashes. We get the feeling that this festival was organised down to every last detail – bar the few, unforeseen, cancellations (Azealia Banks, Solange and last minute Neil Young) – there were no late-to-stage acts! Sometimes though it did feel a little too ordered. A licensing law in Sweden means that drinking at festivals has to be in designated areas. These zones were next to all the stages, which was fine, but it felt like the choice had to be between drinking and getting down, although it was refreshing not to have beer spilt all over you while you’re trying to dance.

In terms of music, it was a well-curated line up. You had your fill of the big dogs (Rodriguez, Cat Power, Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy), ones for the hipster contingent (Haim, Grimes, Angel Haze, Danny Brown) and some token, mainsteamers thrown in for good measure (Alicia Keys, Miguel). Gothenburg’s musical natives were also in abundance: Junip, Goat, The Knife, El Perro del Mar and Håkan Hellström, a boy-band-like mania-inducing solo artist (we still haven’t been able to come up with a UK-equivalent, perhaps Harry Styles in 10 years?).

Stay Out West: Then to Stay Out West, the festival’s after-hours fun – and this is what it’s all about. It is through these parties that Gothenburg’s massive musical undercurrent is channelled – you can see everything from up-til-dawn DJ sets to Glee-like, RnB song-performing choirs (yes, really). Just as much effort and planning is put into SOW as WOW, if not more. When we spoke to one of the founders, Joel Borg, he explained how he loves to mix things up by pairing bands or DJs with unlikely settings, like America’s punk band Pissed Jeans in Gothenburg’s yuppie hang out, the Park Avenue Hotel, or the Ingrid crew in a huge, industrial warehouse. The unofficial raves are also a must to discover Gothenburg’s true colours. Joel mentioned how Gothenburg’s young generation are really starting to get involved. A “group of kids” on the scene, as Joel affectionately put it, hold regular parties on the Gothenburg beaches, and during the festival they planned a lakeside, forest rave, complete with soundsystem (and beer, plenty of beer).

The official venues are in abundance. If you can do a reccy of all of them do, but it’s much more likely that you’ll have to pick one (or a couple near each other) and stay for the whole night. Choose wisely! If you can get guestlist for the parties too, do so as the queues can be prolific. Venues to flag are Annedalskyrkan, a Gothic church which, as you can imagine, has great acoustics and beautiful aesthetics. The Docks also provide a quirky, incongruous setting as does new venue (as of this year), Gothenburg Film Studios, which reminded us a bit of Berlin’s Berghain.

Way Out West - Gothenburg

The Crowd

We hate to say it… but the Swedes make our hipsters look like try-hards. We were told that anyone who’s anyone from Stockholm was there (bloggers, off-duty models, etc, etc.), as well as what seemed like the whole of Gothenburg (young and old alike, but strangely no little kids here à la Glasto). The sub-trends we picked up on were: boys with long hair and backwards baseballs caps; acne-style biker jackets (boys and girls); capes and long thin jackets on girls; fishermen jackets on guys; geeky trainers on everyone and, as we said, Fjällräven rucksacks everywhere. It was a very beautiful, very stylish festival, despite the rain.

Highlights

Musically, there were so many highlights. Grimes was our favourite act (we loved her two token lady dancers), Bat For Lashes sounded amazing and it was the first time we’d seen Haim who really entertained (despite the rubbish chit chat about Swedish boys…). Kendrick Lamar was standout and faultless, and we’ve also come home with a new rap favourite – Detroit-based Danny Brown, whose style reminded us a bit of the rap of yore, all hoes, smoking and partying. In terms of headliners, we were intrigued to see Sweden’s most elusive musical offering, The Knife, after their recent Roundhouse show received mixed reviews. We absolutely loved the show, entitled “Shaking the Habitual”, which began with a “warm-up” aerobics dance before a troupe of glitter-hooded dancers (Dreijer and Dreijer Andersson among them) took to the stage for thumping, colourful dance performance with what can only be described as futuristic, space-like neon instruments. Seeing Ingrid’s Peter Bjorn and John perform Young Folks was also pretty special.

Other Things to Check Out

There’s plenty else to do in Gothenburg. Stroll around the pretty Haga area, making sure to stop off for some Fika at Le Petit Café or Café Husaren, a listed building which has been both a bank and hat shop. There’s also a great second-hand emporium called Emmaus Bjorka on Linnegatan. For more shopping, take the tram to Magasins Gatan, where you’ll find the high-end camp – the Acne store was beautiful and the interior design shops, such as Artilleriet, are where to find Nordic design treasures to bring back home. Da Matteo does great coffee (roasted in-house) and good pizzas.

Way Out West - Gothenburg

For your cultural fill, the Museum of Art is no second-city supporting act. Here you’ll find six floors of art dating back to the 15th century, including one of the country’s leading collections of Nordic art, as well as big international names (Remembrandt, Monet, Degas). Make sure to also check out the huge, 20ft, rotating sculpture of a cross-dressing pole dancer by Cajsa Von Zeipel. We also saw Bruce Nauman’s exhibition (which is here until September 1). If you like contemporary, neon art this one’s for you. Photography buffs will also be pleased to hear there’s a Hasselblad centre downstairs.

Way Out West - Gothenburg

For eating, it has to be shellfish (and maybe some meatballs – for the allegedly best ones in the city head to Smaka). First foodie stop must be the Fish Market, Feskekôrka (“Fish Church”, literally), where you can get fresh crayfish to go, or alternatively head upstairs to Restaurant Gabriel for some oysters. Serious foodsters can get involved in Gothenburg’s seafood safaris, where you can catch everything from crayfish and mussels to mackerel, lobster and shrimp. For more general market wares, head to the civilised Market Hall in the centre of town for artisan Swedish chocolate, sourdough and cheese.

We’ll most certainly heading back next May for Gothenburg’s boutique festival, Knarrholmen, held on the tiny archipelago just south of the city.

Top Tip

Make some Swedish friends so you can get the lowdown on forest raves and other off-piste parties.

Info
UJ flew from LGW to Gothenburg with British Airways and Norwegian Air. Rooms at the Clarion Post are from £160 approx.

With Special thanks to We Are Full Fat, Way Out West and everyone at the Gothenburg Tourist Board.

by JC

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