On 16 August, we – the “Song of Joy” choir – performed the ‘Unforgettable’ programme from April 2026 once again, accompanied by guitarist Emil Ernebro. We performed at Folkparken Valhall in Bengtsfors. On the drive to Bengtsfors, with speakers, cables, microphone stands and other concert equipment in the car, a thought kept running through my mind – one that had already begun with the story of Katrineholm and Mustadfors. Places change their names, factories disappear, and transport links reconnect villages and towns. Yet some buildings and places remain – or remain only because people keep choosing to breathe life into them.
A park for everyone
Folkparken Valhall was founded in 1929. It was established by the Bengtsfors Workers’ Association, the local sports club and the Folkets Hus Association. In its early years, the site consisted merely of a simple dance floor and a small service building. It was only gradually that it developed into a larger venue.
This history of its origins is reminiscent of the Folkets Hus in Mustadfors, yet it also differs from it. The Folkets Hus is a building: a sheltered space with a hall, ancillary rooms and a stage. The Folkets Park, on the other hand, began as an open-air concept. It combines entertainment, music and dance with summer, physical activity, socialising and the sense that culture need not be confined to enclosed spaces.
The Swedish Folkets Parks, much like the Folkets Hus, emerged from the labour movement and the local voluntary sector. They were intended to be affordable places for recreation and community life. Those who worked during the day were to have access to music, dance, theatre, lectures and festivals in the evenings or at weekends. In this context, ‘Folkets Park’ did not mean ‘park’ in the purely scenic sense, but rather a public space: a place where a community comes together, beyond the workplace and the private home.
In Bengtsfors, Valhall played precisely this role for decades. Well-known Swedish and international artists performed there, including Paul Anka, Jerry Williams, Magnus Uggla and Lill-Babs. At the height of its popularity, the park attracted visitors from across a large part of western Sweden.
A place with an open future
Today, it is not simply a matter of continuing this story. Running an old Folkets Park costs money; it requires voluntary commitment, events, an audience and people who are prepared to take on responsibility. There are now initiatives working to preserve the site and rethink its future.
This highlights an experience familiar to many smaller towns: Cultural infrastructure does not simply endure just because it was once built. It must be reclaimed time and again. A park, a stage or a hall can seem empty if nothing is happening there. But as soon as people start rehearsing, setting up tables, arranging the lighting, making coffee, selling tickets, performing and listening, what such a place can be is reborn: a shared space.
Here, too, the same applies: when industry disappears, jobs are lost – but so too are familiar rhythms of life, knowledge, social interactions and the things we take for granted locally. Culture cannot compensate for these losses. It replaces neither income nor social security. But it can keep spaces open where people can continue to feel part of a community.
The concert: Song of Joy & Emil Ernebro
For the ‘Unforgettable’ programme, Song of Joy collaborated with the guitarist Emil Ernebro, who himself hails from Bengtsfors. The fact that a local musician is returning as a guest soloist lends the concert here a unique local flavour.
As you know, I sing in the bass section. For me, this has come to be a special way of ‘arriving’ in Dalsland: not just being a member of the audience learning about a place’s history, but taking part in a choir, setting up the equipment, going through the procedures once more before a concert, and finally becoming part of the sound myself.
As a bass, I don’t usually sing the melody that takes centre stage in the choir. The bass part contributes something else: a foundation, direction, sometimes a counterpoint. It isn’t always clearly audible, but without it, the overall sound changes. I enjoy this experience. A choir is a form of collaboration in which every voice is limited and yet alters the whole.
A concert has its own production requirements. Here, too, coordination is needed: rehearsal times, cues, parts, keys, technical set-up, travel arrangements and a schedule. But in the end, organisation alone is not enough. Music only comes into being when people come together in one place and share their time.
Folkparken Valhall is therefore not merely a venue in Bengtsfors. It is a space where different eras overlap: the history of the labour movement, past dance evenings and concerts, memories of great artists, the current concern for the park’s future – and now a choir, a guitarist, an audience and an evening of songs that may well linger in the air for a long time to come.
Since the end of August, we have been rehearsing for the Christmas programme, which will take place on Saturday 21 November at 6.00 pm and Sunday 22 November at 4.00 pm at Kulturbruket Mellerud.