Sweden - Becky Ohlsen [230]
A gigantic annual three-day music festival, Storsjöyran (Great Lake Festival; www.storsjoyran.se), is held in the town centre in late July/early August and features a range of international artists, from Blondie to Motorhead. Some 55,000 people attend, so note that beds are scarce and expensive around then.
Information
The tourist office (14 40 01; www.turist.ostersund.se; Rådhusgatan 44; 9am-5pm Mon-Thu, 10am-3pm Fri-Sun) is opposite the town hall, and has free internet access. Ask about the Östersund Card (adult/child Skr270/120), which gives discounts or free entry to many local attractions and in winter includes a free day pass (worth Skr90/55) to Gustavsbergsbacken ski hill.
Östersund’s library (14 30 50; Rådhusgatan 25-27; 10am-7pm Mon-Thu, 10am-6pm Fri, 11am-3pm Sat Jun-Aug; 10am-8pm Mon-Thu, 10am-6pm Fri, 11am-3pm Sat Sep-May) has free internet access.
Sights & Activities
Don’t miss Jamtli (15 01 00; www.jamtli.com; adult/child mid-Jun–Aug Skr110/free, Sep–mid-Jun Skr60/free; 11am-5pm daily Jun-Aug, closed Mon Sep-May), 1km north of the town centre. It combines an open-air museum park (à la Skansen in Stockholm) with a first-rate regional culture museum. In the outdoor section, guides wearing period costumes explain the traditions of the area. A perpetual stroller convention goes on at Hackåsgården, the large section of the park set aside for the tiniest tots. Indoors, the regional museum exhibits the Överhogdal Tapestry, a Christian Viking relic from around 1100 that features animals, people, ships and buildings (including churches). It’s one of the oldest of its kind in Europe and may even predate the famous Bayeux tapestry.
Guided tours in English leave from the Östersund 1895 square just inside the entrance at 2pm daily mid-June through August.
An offshoot of Färgfabriken in Stockholm, the newly opened Färgfabriken Norr (390 00 00; www.fargfabriken.se; Byggnad 33, Infanterigatan 30; admission free; noon-5pm Thu-Fri, noon-4pm Sat & Sun) is a huge new art space across the E14 motorway from Jamtli (take bus 14 or 8). It’s a cavernous room with an ambitious curatorial scope; the initial exhibition included work by some 80 artists, including David Lynch and JG Thirlwell, representing pretty much all forms, from painting, sculpture and video to installations using broken glass, body hair and lightning.
The Stadsmuseum (12 13 24; adult/child Skr30/free; 10am-4pm Mon-Fri, 1-4pm Sat & Sun mid-Jun–Aug, noon-3pm Sat Sep–mid-Jun), near the tourist office, contains items of local historical, cultural and topographical interest.
Activities include lake cruises (adult/child Skr80/40, Lake Storsjön tour Skr90/40; tours Tue-Sun, Jun-early Sep) on the old S/S Thomée steamship, including themed tours, dinner tours and trips to the small castle-capped island of Verkön (Skr110/40). Book through the tourist office (14 40 01); the schedule’s complicated, but it’s posted on a sign by the boat at the harbour. A handful of rush tickets are usually available at the harbour before each trip.
An increasingly fashionable activity is Icelandic horse riding (212 77; Sörbygården, Brunflo). Prices (from Skr300) include helmets and a snack; book through the tourist office. The riding school is 5km south of Östersund.
FRÖSÖN
The nicest way to explore this island is to walk across the footbridge from the middle of Östersund (it starts at Badhusparken), then catch a bus up the hill. (Buses 5 and 9 also go to the island from outside the tourist office.)
Just across the footbridge, outside Landstingshuset and near the Konsum supermarket, is Sweden’s northernmost rune stone, which commemorates the arrival of Christianity