LULEÅ STORY • NO. 1 • 2018 • NO. STORY LULEÅ A MAGAZINE TO HELP YOU EXPLORE LULEÅ 2018 • No. 1 Story JAN THE ICEMAN AND THE ICE ROAD NEW SPORT NOT FOR WALLFLOWERS THEY CHOSE TO MOVE BACK HOME YOUTHS FOLLOWING THEIR DREAMS NEW ADVENTURE IN THE TREETOPS CROWDED CREATIVE MEDIA WEEK DUTCH ELITE UPTURN FOR DRAWN BY ICE LULEÅ’S HOTELS LULEÅ PRIDE WOMEN’S HOCKEY ALL YEAR ROUND SHOWS THE WAY CONTENTS 31-33 These Heavy Clouds at Luleå Pride On Ice 2 LULEÅ STORY CONTENTS 4 SHAKESPEARE 5 9 14 TO HÄGNAN Norrbottensteatern performs classic drama. 12 JUNKÖN BOASTS UNIQUE MILL A windmill for all seasons. 18 FROM STADSPUBEN TO SOULUTION The nightclubs that put Luleå on the map. THE WÄPPLINGS LIV GOT TO TRAIN NEW YEAR WEDDINGS CHOSE LULEÅ WITH HER IDOL FOR HAPPY COUPLES 20 COLUMNIST SOPHIE Moving back home to start a Michelle Karvinen and Luleå Josefine and Christian tied the GUNNARSSON family was a given. Hockey/MSSK show the way. knot under the stars. LGBT club Make Out brought politics to the 15 21 28 party. 26 JAN AND THE LOVE OF ICE The master of the ice road on its challenges and charm. 31 LULEÅ PRIDE ON ICE ALL SET A complement to the summer festival. EXPANSION FOR THE RETURN OF PROVIDING FASHION LULEÅ’S BIGGEST HOTEL KPN GRAND PRIX FOR MUSLIM WOMEN 34 YOUTH CENTRE AND Encouraging numbers for Dutch skaters conquered Kausar Mohammed runs SECOND FAMILIES hotels as hospitality grows. Luleå’s ice. Al Kawthar Shop. How Luleå is helping new residents. 37 42 50 44 HE KNOWS HIS NEW HOME TOWN Dutchman Dirk Koolwijk promotes Luleå. 46 PRESTIGIOUS NOMINATION FOR LILLA SKAFFERIET Ida Ask on sustainability and good ingredients. MAXIDA MÄRAK HELD LOFTY WALKWAY FROM FINLAND TO 48 OWN NEEDS LED COURT AT NMW FOR ALL THE FAMILY LULEÅ RIDING CLUB TO SUCCESS Lectures, music and discussions Pontus Frank and Explore Lovisa, Ida and Elsa passionate Headbanger Lures sold all during creative week. Luleå’s new venture. about brand new sport. over the world. LULEÅ STORY WRITERS: MARIANA VNUK, ELIN CARLANSSON, SOPHIE GUNNARSSON. GRAPHIC DESIGN: PETER KEMI. PHOTOGRAPHERS: ANDERS ALM (P. 4), LULEÅFOTOGRAFERNA (P. 14, 20), PETRA ÄLVSTRAND (P. 5-8, 15-17, 28-30, 42-43, 46, 48), TOMAS BERGMAN (P. 21-27, 34-35, 44-45), KARL-WILLIAM SANDSTRÖM (P. 37-41), DANIEL HOLMGREN (P. 12-13, 36), PÄR BÄCKSTRÖM (P. 9-11), SUSANNE LINDHOLM (P. 2, 31-33, 50). PRODUCTION: LULEÅ MUNICIPALITY IN COLLABORATION WITH PR AGENCY VINTER. PRINTER: V-TAB. PUBLISHER: LULEÅ MUNICIPALITY COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE, [email protected]. LULEÅ STORY 3 NEWS New boat in the Green light for hockey archipelago high school for girls This summer, it’ll be easier – and more As of the autumn term 2019, Luleå importantly quicker – to travel between High School offers a national sports Klubbviken and Hindersön. The vessel programme in ice hockey for girls as well Hilda af Hindersön will make the journey as boys. The decision came from the in 1 hours instead of the 3 hours it takes Swedish National Agency for Education on the regular route where Hindersön is 93 in May that programme can start. the last stop. The new service was tried World’s fastest on out last year. ice road in Luleå 93 kilometres per hour. That’s how fast Dutch Olympic medallist Kjeld Nuis sped along Luleå’s ice road when he set a new world record in speed skating in March. The previous world record was 62.8 kilometres per hour. ÖSTRA LÄNKEN WINS AWARD The Östra Länken infrastructure Recordin Gammelstad summer Church Town project won the top award in the Swedish construction industry’s most prestig- ious competition – Construction of the Year. Competing against twenty other projects in Sweden, Östra Länken was named Construction of the Year 2018 on 19 March. With a focus on water and wastewater, this is one of the larger infrastructure projects conducted in Luleå and will enable the city to grow. Last summer, Gammelstad Church Town attracted record visitor numbers. This year, they’ll be banking on outdoor theatre again and Kafé Fägnan has been taken over by sisters Emma and Elin Åström. Never before has the venerable world her- And there’s more happening at Hägnan. itage site had so many visitors as last year. Since autumn 2017, popular Kafé Fägnan Gammelstad Visitor Centre had almost has been run by Systrarnas, aka sisters 38,000 visitors from May to August. That’s Emma and Elin Åström. After graduating an increase of more than 10,000 visitors from the restaurant and hotel college in compared to the previous year. Grythyttan, the Luleå sisters decided to Also last summer, Norrbottensteatern de- run a summer café in Sockenstugan in cided to perform Shakespeare’s A Midsum- Gammelstad Church Town. During the mer Night’s Dream at Hägnan. The last time period 2012-2016, they managed Luleå they played summer theatre on this scale Golf Club’s restaurant and now they’ve was in 1996. And the classic comedy of moved on to Restaurang Helmers at Liko/ mistaken identity was such a success in the Hill-Rom in Alvik and Kafé Fägnan. ❖ green surroundings of Hägnan that they’ve decided to repeat their performance. A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be performed 14-30 June. 4 LULEÅ STORY COMING HOME “Moving home was a given” They came to a crossroads. Move to Stockholm, or settle in Luleå again. Couple Lisa and Viktor Wäppling decided to return to the north. “It feels like we would’ve put life on hold if we didn’t move back,” says Viktor. LULEÅ STORY 5 COMING HOME tepping confidently, and pushing a pink toy There was a year of longing and flights before Viktor pushchair, Judith enters the kitchen. Right was accepted to a programme in landscape archi- behind is older sister Ebba, three years her tecture and moved south to join Lisa. They remained senior. Judith stops, pulls a face then smiles, there for five years. It’s difficult Sher whole face lighting up, before she continues into “Towards the end of our studies, we came to a cross- to imagine a her room next door. With its 250 square metres, this roads; either move to Stockholm or back to Luleå,” life in a small house from the 1960s has plenty of space for these says Viktor. apartment two energetic little ladies. And this – family life – is exactly why couple Lisa and Viktor Wäppling returned Looking back, it’s clear why they didn’t choose Stock- that we prob- home to the north. holm. Lisa and Viktor wanted to have children, a fami- ably would’ve ly life, but doing that in the capital wasn’t an option. rented as Lisa and Viktor both grew up in Luleå, but it wasn’t “It would’ve felt like putting life on hold. In hindsight, a sublet in until 2004, when both were in their early 20s, that it’s difficult to imagine a life in a small apartment that Stockholm. they became a couple. Two years later, Lisa applied we probably would’ve rented as a sublet in Stockholm and was accepted to study medicine. But her accept- instead of the life we have today,” says Viktor. ance letter was from Uppsala and not Umeå, her first choice. In 2012, they made the move to Luleå. They got “I just started crying. Uppsala was my last choice. I married and had their first child the following summer. was really upset because Viktor hadn’t found a course For two years now, the couple have lived together with in Uppsala,” says Lisa. their daughters in a two-storey property in Lulsundet 6 LULEÅ STORY COMING HOME LULEÅ STORY 7 COMING HOME – just a stone’s throw from where Viktor grew up. The coffee’s finished and only crumbs remain of the “We have the beach down there,” says Viktor pointing, Tosca cake that sat on the plate. Ebba leads the way then pointing in another direction: on her yellow space hopper as the entire family shows “And the ski slope up there. It’s fantastic.” us around their home. Now and then they travel to Stockholm, it’s just a short flight away as they say. And it’s this proximity to the forest, the water and the But they always enjoy coming home. city – and the convenience that comes as an added “It’s calmer up here, not so much ‘us versus them’. bonus – that explains why they’re so happy in Luleå. A little more togetherness,” says Lisa. ❖ “It would’ve been more of a project if, for example, we’d lived in Stockholm. Now everything’s so simple,” says Lisa. 8 LULEÅ STORY SPORT “New girls join every weekend” They’ve received awards for their equality work and are the most active club in Sweden when it comes to investing in activities for women and girls. This year, Luleå Hockey/MSSK won their second gold – and are attracting increasingly more girls to their hockey school. LULEÅ STORY 9 SPORT ichelle Karvinen, Swedish cham- pion and named the Swedish Women’s Hockey League’s best forward, puts her arm around It’s really M10-year-old Liv and asks if she’d like to play for rewarding to Luleå Hockey/MSSK eventually. see what this Her eyes light up and she smiles broadly – Liv is team means for part of the new wave of young girls choosing ice young girls. hockey. The 2015/16 season was the one when Luleå Hockey and Munksund SSK chose to merge and direct their efforts more offensively in the SWHL.