It went very well for us, says festival director Jonathan Norén Brännström. Archive photo.
This year’s Trästockfestivalen featured two intense and hot days – perhaps a little too hot, according to the festival director, Norén Brännström.
– The weather has been much better than last year, maybe almost too good for a festival, almost so that people would rather go swimming than come here, he says.
Following extensive preparations, two intense festival days, and an entire night of dismantling, the heat was still a recurring theme when Norran spoke with Brännström on Sunday afternoon.
– It has been a sweaty week, to say the least, both building up and during the festival itself, and now we’re out on the site taking down the last things. It feels like a few kilos have melted off my body, he says.
Despite the heat, he summed up the festival as a success. Visitor numbers increased compared to last year, and it ran smoothly.
Myra Granberg was one of Trästockfestivalen’s big bookings. Festival director Jonathan Norén Brännström estimates that she attracted the largest audience of the entire festival.
Silvana Imam played at Trästockfestivalen for the third time. She also performed at the festival in 2015 and 2019.
Kärlek & Slagsmål’s performance, on the Campus stage, was packed.
– We've had great teamwork, and I believe we performed exceptionally well.
This year's festival featured a new Campus stage location, set up in the courtyard behind the Exploratoriat, which proved highly successful.
– It was a nice setting. However, there is a lot of fine sand and gravel there, so it got quite dusty in the dry weather. But that is something we can solve if we do it there again. Overall, it was a successful test, says Brännström.
Next to the new location of the Campus stage was an artwork
Trästockfestivalen was a success, according to the organiser.
Norran spoke with Brännström before a formal evaluation of the festival had taken place, but based on conversations during the festival, his impression was that most aspects ran smoothly.
– We've become very good at making a festival of this size work well. The persistent challenge, however, is simply affording it financially, he says.
Just over 10,000 people visited Trästock this year, the festival director believes. Mira Stensson and Sofi Bygdebo were two of the visitors who arrived early on Saturday.
Alexander Lundberg was a volunteer at the festival. When Norran met him, he was sitting at the mixing desk in the shade of a tent.