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Peace & Love Festival

Peace & Love is the largest festival in Sweden and theonly one with an outspoken message of Solidarity, Diversity and Understanding, which runs through the whole event. It started in 1999 and is located in Borlänge, Sweden. The festival is a part of an organization which is involved in other projects besides the festival in Borlänge.

The concept of the Peace & Love festival is to spread the message of Diversity, Solidarity and Understanding. It’s about crossing borders and bringing differing cultures from near and afar together and trying to get people to change their attitudes towards themselves and others.

History

The Peace & Love festival was first held in 1999, as a reaction to the ongoing violence. The first festival was held at a club in central Borlänge, with about 900 attendees. Since then the festival has been held at different locations i central Borlänge. The Peace & Love festival is still one of Scandinavia's fastest-growing festivals. In 2006 there were 15,000 visitors per day, with over 37,000 people attending in total. The 10th Peace & Love festival was in 2008 and had a record of 25000 visitors, which made them the second biggest festival in Sweden.

2008

This year was the big break for the festival. The tickets sold out as early as 23 May, and the festival got a lot of attention in nationwide media. 2008 was celebrated as the tenth festival. Artist that played, amongst others, were Sex Pistols [UK], Manu Chao [FR/ES], Kent, Teddybears, The Wombats [UK], Crystal Castles [CAN]. As a late surprise Roky Ericson and the nomads was announced.

2009

The festival was held between 22 June and 27 June. This year Peace & Love became Sweden's biggest festival with 41 685 tickets sold. Some of the bigger bands and artists were: Mötley Crüe (US), The Kooks (UK), Volbeat (DK), Milow (BE), Keane (UK), Thåström and Håkan Hellström.

2010

In 2010, the event took place between June 28 and July 3 - the same weekend as other major scandinavian festivals Roskilde Festival and Hove Festival. The festival broke that record yet again, selling 42 000 tickets. This year, amongst others, Jay-Z, Lily Allen, Patti Smith, The Kooks and Kent.

Source: Wikipedia