A local fire festival in the north of Sweden.

Eldfest is a fire festival, which has been annually held in Luleå for the last few years at the same time as the Jokkmokk Winter market. The word fire festival might be a bit much, as the Eldfest is a small event held in the Hägnan Open air museum in Gammelstad church town during winter, which finishes with a fire show.

In 2019, when I visited with my mother, Eldfest was held on the 10th of February, which was a Sunday. Since I was showing her around Gammelstad, we decided to camp in the Hägnan cafe until the fire show, as the event programme did not offer much. There was a guided tour of Gammelstad with lanterns, drop in candle making workshops and freshly baked traditional bread.

Eldfest 2019 with a bonus photo of some sheep with a snow coat

All in all, it was a very small local event, meant to draw the visitors who were staying in Luleå after the Jokkmokk market. The fire show was quite decent and we got a good chuckle out of hearing the edgy Slovenian band Laibach used as a soundtrack.

All photos by my mother.