Smaka på Stockholm (A Taste of Stockholm) is Sweden’s biggest and one of the world’s biggest food and drink festivals. Every year more than 350,000 visitors are attracted to this early summer food festival.
Several of Sweden’s best chefs and collaborators provide a range of scrumptious sustenance from a broad spectrum of food traditions and cultures across the huge festival ground at Kungsträdgården in Stockholm.
The offerings are as diverse as the capital itself, and visitors can enjoy Swedish cuisine as well as exotic creations from all over the world.
Visitors with a shared interest in food and drink can visit the festival for free – at least until they decide to taste some of the amazing food and drink being served. During the first week of June Kunsträdgården is transformed into a culinary sensation, presenting some of the best restaurants, food-trucks, bakers and local producers in Sweden.
The organizer expect to sell 200,000 portions of food, 100,000 pints of beers and 65,000 glasses of wine at the event, and there will be cooking contests, drink and food tastings as well as several free concerts from jazz to rock, performed by many well-known artists.
Over the festival’s five-day run you can experience “chef duels’ and happy Swedes celebrating the beginning of summer. Initially, the festival was called Restaurangernas Dag (‘the Day of the Restaurants’), but in 2004 it changed the name to Smaka på Stockholm (A Taste of Stockholm).
This self-proclaimed ‘festival for all’ emphasizes on diversity for all ages, genders and backgrounds, and expect environmental awareness to play a big role. “We, and all participating companies recycle as much as we can,” says the organizer.
When: June 1 – 6
Opening hours: 1 – 5 June 11 am-11 pm, 6 June 11 am-10 pm.
Feature image (on top): Top Chef Jonas Lundgren, 2009 Bocuse D’or silver medalist
A Taste of Stockholm, written by Tor Kjolberg