Norrköping
Sweden
UNESCO City of Music
since 2017
Norrköping is the cultural capital of the Region Östergötland – just south of the swedish capital and fellow music city Stockholm. As a UNESCO City of Music Norrköping has a history of making music and other cultural expressions part of the city development – in an innovative, diverse and including way.
Events like Willhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition, Hugo Parkfestival, Bob Marley memorial, Rock in the forest, Pratté harpfestival and the Folk music festival combined with institutions like the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and musical heritage like raising the producer of pop phenomenon ABBA – Michael B Tretow make Norrköping a small, but solid part of music cities on the global arena.
The municipality of Norrköping make music available for all and supports all genres, creating a very interesting mix of creative, indie music communities. The beatuiful city centre and Norrköping being a logistic centre in Sweden make it a good place for event production and a growing cluster of music producers within genres like techno/electronic music, reggae, jazz, metal and the unique pop sound make up an interesting mix.
Music and arts have been a part of the city identity for hundreds of years. The municipality of Norrköping are working with the concept ”Let´s create” (together). Arbis Night club was once the place for local soirees when the workers for the textile and paper industries 150 years ago. Today the cultural hub of Hallarna is a place where people, organizations and creative industries meet.
In 2017 a coordinator for music development was placed at the Trade and industry office to explore the development of the creative sector. Norrköping make music available for everyone through classes included in the educational system, music classes and secondary art schools. Programs like El Systema and School of culture provide musical education for young people (4-24 yr) after school hours. The higher education for Folkhögskola and the University of Linköping with programs that combine culture and entreprenurship.
International talents like solo violinist Johan Dalene, not yet 20 years old, Royal opera singer Elin Rombo and popstar Marcus Krunegård were nurtured here and the Norrköping Symphony orchestra collaborate with the Royal academy of music in Stockholm.
The night of culture is a unique, joint project for all creatives in all expressions since more than 20 years and Norrköping was named City of jazz in 2019. Clusters for culture tech, Visual Sweden and East Sweden Game and a strong development for gastronomy and film are part of the cultural scene, that also boasts a great spread of performing arts like theatre, new cirkus, dance and visual media art.
With a world class Visualization center and art museums , the Concert hall Louis De Geer and Kolmarden Zoo & entertainment park in Sweden Norrköping has a lot to offer tourists apart from big events and festivals.
2015-2018 Norrköping hosted the swedish showcasefestival ”Where´s the music”, in 2019 we hosted Sound Diplomacy Music Cities Forum. Starting 2021 there will be a new, annual, innovative – national and international – platform for music cities and industry.