Lola A. Åkerström shows you what to expect at Sweden’s largest food festival.
While Gothenburg may hold the official title of Sweden’s Culinary Capital (no place does seafood like Gothenburg), Stockholm has a strong foodie scene which comes out in full force during the early summer festival, Smaka På Stockholm – or Taste of Stockholm.
The popular food festival, the largest food event in Sweden, draws thousands of revelers (over 5,000,000 the last 19 years).
It is held every first week of June in Kungsträdgården (Kungsan), or ”King’s Garden” with about 300,000 visitors digging in over the festival’s five day run.
Roughly 25 restaurants serve up 170 types of dishes in 200,000+ portions washed down by 160,000+ bottles of beer and cider, 70,000+ glasses of wine, 10,000+ glasses of champagne, 22,000+ cups of coffee, and 36,000+ glasses of soft drink and water.
Needless to say, Taste of Stockholm remains one of the city’s beloved and heavily frequently event for foodies.
In addition to food, there will be performing artists, dueling celebrity chefs, cooking demonstrations, and the ever present candied almonds vendor filling the air with that distinct smoky sweet aroma.
This year, the festival will be marking its 22 year anniversary and since 2010, its has been environmentally certified by the Swedish organisation Keep Sweden Tidy and all participating restaurants are required to serve at least one dish qualified for the Swedish organic KRAV label.
“We also started the initiative Stockholm Green, a cooperative effort between Keep Sweden Tidy, The Nordic Ecolabel, KRAV and A Taste of Stockholm. In 2011, A Taste of Stockholm and Stockholm Green joined forces, ” shares its organizers. “We want to inspire, motivate and offer knowledge to make it easier for all of us to do the right thing for the environment, in other words – a sustainable lifestyle.”
Since I’ll be missing Smaka På Stockholm this year by just a few days, I wanted to share photos from past events to give you an idea of what to expect from June 5-9, 2013 at Kungsan.
