Social events

Swedish midsummer celebration (Monday evening, June 12).

Find your way to the midsummer celebration with this map.

The Swedish midsummer celebrations occurs on a day and the preceding evening close to the actual summer solstice. The exact dates vary between June 19 and June 25. In Sweden Midsummer is such an important festivity that there have been serious discussions to make the midsummer’s eve into the National Day of Sweden, instead of June 6.

On midsummer’s eve a so-called maypole (majstång or midsommarstång (literally midsummer pole)) is decorated with green leaves and flowers, the pole is then raised. This happen all around Sweden as a start of the midsummer festivities. This is a family event and both adults and children meet, socialize and dance around the maypole.

Midsummer is sprung from pagan rites. During the Viking age there were rituals centered around Freyja and Freyr to worship fertility and a rich harvest.

Traditional dance at Swedish Midsummer

The midsummer celebration that you can take part in at the IAFSS symposium will be held at Kulturen. Kulturen consist of an area with several historical buildings and gardens located in central Lund . Step into the houses and experience life in the city and the countryside, from the Middle Ages to the 1930s.

 The evening will start at the open air museum, Kulturen, where you will have a guided tour and be presented to historic Swedish building types, households and exhibitions. After the guided tour, there will be music with dance performance and a traditional Swedish Midsummer dinner (incl. herring, salmon and strawberries with cream) served with a non-alcoholic beverage. Purchase of alcoholic drinks as beer, wine and snaps will be available at the bar. 

You sign up when you register for the symposium.

Rescue services college visit (Tuesday night, June 13)

Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) runs two agency facilities in Sweden that provide education and training in the field of societal safety and readiness. One of these facilities are located in the small village Revinge just 20 km from Lund. At the college in Revinge around 4000 people are trained annually. The college offers unique expertise and educated staff in the fields of fire safety, emergency services, crisis management, medicine and behavioural science.

MSB Revinge partners with a number of service providers and institutes, including Lund University, Copenhagen University, Malmö högskola, and the Defence Forces. Several of the large-scale laboratories that are included in courses given by the Division of Fire Safety Engineering are conducted on the collage training field.

During the visit to the rescue service college you will see the training facilities for fire fighters and also some demonstrations.

If you want to see the rescue service college you can do that on Tuesday evening, June 13. You sign up when you register for the symposium.