Peace & Love (festival)

This article is about the Swedish festival. For other uses, see Peace and love.

Peace & Love
GenreRock, pop, hip hop, world, Swedish
Dates3 days, in June/July (6 days including theme days)
Location(s)Borlänge, Sweden
Years active1999–2019
FoundersFöreningen Peace & Love, Jesper Heed, Henry Murtokangas, Michael Kvist
Websitewww.peaceandlove.se

Peace & Love was the largest music festival in Sweden, known for its humanitarian message, pervasive throughout the event. It started in Borlänge and ran from 1999 until the company filed for bankruptcy in 2013.[1]

The Peace & Love Crew announced that they would continue to do the much loved festival and in 2014 the festivals were back on under the name "Peace & Love World Forum". Since then it has expanded and has gone back to its old name "Peace & Love".[2] The festival was cancelled in 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic, and shortly the festival declared bankruptcy.

History

The Peace & Love Festival was first held in 1999, as a reaction to the ongoing violence. The first festival was held at a club in central Borlänge, with about 900 attendees. Since then the festival was held at different locations in central Borlänge. The Peace & Love Festival was one of Scandinavia's fastest-growing festivals. In 2006 there were 15,000 visitors per day, with over 37,000 people attending in total. The 10th Peace & Love Festival was in 2008 and had a record of 25000 visitors, which made it the second biggest festival in Sweden.

2008

The tickets sold out as early as 23 May, and the festival got a lot of attention in nationwide media. 2008 was celebrated as the tenth festival. Artist that played, amongst others, were Sex Pistols [UK], Manu Chao [FR/ES], Kent, Teddybears, The Wombats [UK], Crystal Castles [CAN]. As a late surprise Roky Ericson and The Nomads was announced.[citation needed]

2009

The festival was held between 22 June and 27 June. This year Peace & Love became Sweden's biggest festival with 41 685 tickets sold. Some of the bands and artists were: Mötley Crüe (US), The Kooks (UK), Volbeat (DK), Milow (BE), Keane (UK), Thåström and Håkan Hellström.[citation needed]

2010

In 2010, the event took place between 28 June and 3 July - the same weekend as other major Scandinavian festivals Roskilde Festival and Hove Festival. The festival sold 42 000 tickets. This year, amongst others, Jay-Z, Lily Allen, Patti Smith, The Kooks and Kent played.[citation needed]

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Dates: 5–6 August Dates: 4–5 August Dates: 3–4 August Dates: 5–6 July Dates: 4–5 July Dates: 8–10 July
Number of days: 2 Number of days: 2 Number of days: 2 Number of days: 2 Number of days: 2 Number of days: 3
Visitors: 900 Visitors: 2 500 Visitors: 3 000 Visitors: 3 500 Visitors: 8 500 Visitors: 10 000
Artists:

Ark
Ken
The Nomads

Artists:

Thåström
Lars Winnerbäck
Skurkarna

 Artists:

Sator
Backyard Babies
Rikard Wolff

 Artists:

The Latin Kings
Sophie Zelmani
Infinite Mass

 Artists:

The Ark
The Sounds
Jakob Hellman

 Artists:

Motörhead [UK]
Hanoi Rocks [FI]
Broder Daniel

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Dates: 8–9 July Dates: 4–8 July Dates: 26–30 June Dates: 23–28 June Dates: 22–27 June Dates: 28 June – 3 July
Number of days: 2 Number of days: 5 Number of days: 5 Number of days: 6 Number of days: 6 Number of days: 6
Visitors: 10 000 Visitors: 15 000 Visitors: 20 000 Visitors: 25 000 Visitors: 41 685 Visitors: 42 000
Artists:

Ulf Lundell
Thomas Di Leva
Håkan Hellström

 Artists:

Patti Smith [US]
New York Dolls [US]
The Cardigans

 Artists:

Iggy & The Stooges [US]
Alice Cooper [US]
The Ark

 Artists:

Sex Pistols [UK]
Manu Chao [FR/ES]
Kent

 Artists:

Mötley Crüe [US]
Håkan Hellström
Faith No More [US]

 Artists:

Jay-Z [US]
Lily Allen [UK]
Patti Smith [US]

Theme

Each year, Peace & Love focuses on a subject that they theme the festival on.

Past years' themes
  • 2004 - Freedom of Speech
  • 2005 - Environment
  • 2006 - Democracy
  • 2007 - Revolution
  • 2008 - Wake Up!
  • 2009 - Passion
  • 2010 - Freedom
  • 2011 - Courage, hope and love[3]
  • 2012 - A new World[4]
  • 2013 - Time For Peace - Cancelled
  • 2014 - Diversity
  • 2015 - Rise Of The Citizen

Artists

Over the years, artists such as Patti Smith, New York Dolls, Vitalic, Jay-Z, Tech N9ne, Lily Allen, Them Crooked Vultures, Alice Cooper, Slayer, W.A.S.P., Surkin, NOFX, Ed Harcourt, Vive la Fête, Hanoi Rocks, Motörhead, Cut Copy, and Khonnor, Familjen, Rootvälta, Den Svenska Björnstammen, Miike Snow, Name The Pet, The Cardigans, Thåström, Håkan Hellström, The Sounds, Mando Diao, Lars Winnerbäck, Ulf Lundell, The Hives, Looptroop, The Hellacopters and Silverbullit, among many others. The band which has played the most often at the Peace & Love festival is Sugarplum Fairy, a rock band from Borlänge whose two singers, Carl and Victor, are younger brothers of Gustaf Norén from the better-known band Mando Diao, also a rock band from Borlänge. Sugarplum Fairy has played every year since 2001.

Some of the bands that have played:

Peace & Love City bandy club

In 2016, the festival started a cooperation with the leading local bandy club, which led the bandy club to change its names from Borlänge Bandy to Peace & Love City.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Peace & Love ställer in festivalen - Peace & Love". dt.se. 28 May 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  2. ^ "Peace & Love återuppstår". 4 November 2013.
  3. ^ "Nyheter". Archived from the original on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  4. ^ [1][dead link‍]
  5. ^ Bandypuls: "Borlänge Bandy byter namn – heter nu Peace & Love City", 1 September 2016, läst 6 August 2017