The Sun Barely Sets
The first thing you notice is the light. It’s 10 PM in central Sweden and the sky is the colour of weak tea — golden, translucent, refusing to darken. Someone hands you a glass of aquavit. A fiddle starts up somewhere behind the maypole. Three kids in flower crowns are trying to catch a dog. This is Midsommar.
Sweden’s summer solstice celebration falls on the Friday and Saturday closest to June 24 — in 2026, that’s June 19-20. Ask a Swede whether they’d rather skip Christmas or Midsommar and most will hesitate before answering, which tells you everything. This isn’t a spectator holiday. It’s participatory, communal, and almost aggressively wholesome.
Små Grodorna and Other Dignified Traditions
The centrepiece of every Midsommar gathering is the midsommarstång — a tall wooden cross wrapped in birch leaves and wildflower garlands. Getting it upright is a group effort that involves a surprising amount of shouting and at least one near-disaster.
Once it’s standing, the ring dances begin. The most famous is Små grodorna (‘The Little Frogs’), in which every person present — grandparents, toddlers, sulking teenagers — hops around the maypole croaking and flapping their arms like frogs. It looks ridiculous. Nobody cares. The sincerity is the point.
Other dances follow, most with hand gestures that apparently mean something, though nobody seems entirely sure what. The choreography gets passed down in the way of family recipes — approximately, with regional variations nobody will acknowledge.
Flower crowns are non-negotiable. On Midsommar Eve, you pick wildflowers and weave them into wreaths for your hair. There’s a superstition: if you gather seven different species in complete silence and sleep with them under your pillow, you’ll dream of your future spouse. The ‘complete silence’ part is harder than it sounds after a few glasses of snaps.
What You’ll Eat (and Drink, and Drink Again)
The Midsommar table has a rigid canon. Deviate at your peril.
Pickled herring comes first and comes in quantities. Mustard herring, dill herring, onion herring, cream sauce herring — a Swedish Midsommar spread might have five or six variations, and opinions about which is best can end friendships. The herring sits alongside new potatoes (färskpotatis) boiled with dill. These are the season’s first potatoes, and Swedes treat their arrival with a reverence normally reserved for religious occasions.
Then there’s the snaps — small glasses of aquavit, the caraway-flavoured spirit that tastes like rye bread in liquid form. Each glass gets its own drinking song (snapsvisa). Everyone sings. The songs get worse as the evening progresses. This is by design.
Dessert is strawberries with cream (jordgubbar med grädde). Swedish strawberries in late June are genuinely exceptional — small, intensely sweet, nothing like the watery supermarket kind. The meal stretches for hours, eaten outdoors at long tables while the sky stays stubbornly bright.
Where to Go
Dalarna — The Real Thing
The Dalarna region around Lake Siljan is where Midsommar is most itself. Leksand hosts probably the most famous celebration in Sweden — the maypole on the lakeshore, folk musicians in traditional dress (folkdräkt), thousands of people dancing in a meadow while the light bounces off the water. Rättvik runs a close second.
The catch: everyone knows Dalarna is the place to be, so accommodation sells out months ahead. If you’re planning to go, book now. Seriously — the lakeside cottages get reserved by the same families year after year.
Getting there from Stockholm takes about 3-4 hours by train (SJ), or you can drive, but expect heavy traffic leaving the capital on Thursday evening. Trip.com sometimes has hotel deals in the Siljan area if the cottages are gone.
Stockholm — Skansen
If you’re staying in Stockholm, Skansen on Djurgården runs the city’s biggest traditional Midsommar event. Live folk music, maypole dancing, craft demonstrations. It gets packed — arrive by early afternoon or you’ll be watching from behind four rows of heads.
Skansen is a good option if you want the experience without committing to a rural trip, though I’d argue it’s a bit more ‘cultural exhibition’ than authentic village celebration.
The Archipelago
For something quieter, the Stockholm archipelago is worth considering. Small island communities hold their own celebrations — maypole raisings on grassy headlands overlooking the Baltic, followed by potluck dinners. Some ferry companies run special Midsommar services. You’ll need to book these early too.
Small-Town Sweden
Honestly, some of the best Midsommar celebrations are the ones nobody writes about — village greens in Småland, church meadows in Västergötland, someone’s cousin’s farm in Skåne. If you’re staying anywhere in rural Sweden, ask at the local tourist office. Most towns hold public celebrations and visitors are genuinely welcome.
The Things Nobody Warns You About
Sweden shuts down. This is not an exaggeration. Midsommar Eve is when the country stops functioning. Shops close by noon on Friday. Most restaurants close for the entire weekend, including in Stockholm. Grocery stores may open Saturday morning with reduced hours, but don’t count on it. Buy everything you need by Thursday.
Public transport fills up. Trains to Dalarna sell out for Midsommar weekend. Book as early as SJ releases tickets. If you’re driving out of Stockholm on Friday morning, add at least an hour to your expected journey time.
The weather will do whatever it wants. Swedish June can be 25°C and sunny or 12°C and raining sideways. Swedes celebrate regardless — they’ll dance around the maypole in a downpour and consider it character-building. Bring layers and waterproof something.
You will not sleep easily. In central Sweden, the sun dips just below the horizon around midnight and comes back up almost immediately. In northern Sweden, it doesn’t set at all. Bring a sleep mask. The perpetual twilight is beautiful but physically confusing — your body has no idea what time it is.
Alcohol logistics. The state-run liquor stores (Systembolaget) close early before Midsommar and stay closed through the weekend. If you want wine or spirits for the celebration, buy them by Thursday afternoon at the latest. This catches foreign visitors off guard every single year.
Getting There and Getting Sorted
Stockholm is the obvious entry point. Arlanda airport has good connections to most European cities, and from there it’s straightforward to reach either the city centre or head north to Dalarna.
For flights, CheapAir is worth checking for routes to Stockholm — Nordic destinations sometimes show up with decent fares if you book 6-8 weeks out. For activities once you’re there, KLOOK and GetYourGuide both list Midsommar-adjacent experiences (archipelago boat tours, Skansen entries, that sort of thing).
Renting a car gives you the most flexibility for reaching smaller celebrations, and it’s the only practical way to explore Dalarna beyond the main towns. Europcar has pickup locations at Arlanda.
After the Last Song
The party winds down around 2 AM, except the sky looks exactly the same as it did at 10 PM, so ‘winds down’ is relative. Someone is still playing the fiddle. The flower crowns have gone limp. There’s one last piece of herring on the table that nobody wants but nobody will throw away.
I walked back to the car along a gravel road in Dalarna once, at something like 3 in the morning. Could see perfectly — the light was this weird silvery-gold, like the world had its brightness turned up but its contrast turned down. A bird was singing. It felt like time had just… paused.
Swedish summers are short. The Swedes know this better than anyone, which is probably why they go so hard on Midsommar. Four months from now it’ll be dark by 3 PM.
