HAGESTAD Kilometer-long queues on the highway and parking problems.
Despite the television success leading to summers of chaos, Karl Fredrik Gustafsson feels enormous support from his neighbors – but sometimes the jealousy is noticeable.
– We have been reported anonymously for things for which we had a building permit.
Two minutes.
That’s how long it takes – max – from the time Karl Fredrik Gustafsson, 37, starts showing us around the blooming commercial garden before a visitor asks for a picture.
The couple inquiring have traveled from Oslo, a journey of 80 miles, to see the farm Eklaholm that they got to know through Swedish television. To also get to meet the main character of the series – what a bonus!
There will be a few more happy photo stops on the way before we settle down in the garden that belongs to Karl Fredrik and his fiance Petter Kjellén’s private home.
No matter how private it can be – even here visitors can appear who do not respect the demarcation, says Karl Fredrik.
– From the beginning I was a little frustrated. But it was just to “go with the flow”. I hardly know what has happened in recent years.
The neighbors were skeptical
In any case, what has happened is four seasons of the lifestyle program and the TV4 hit “Karl Fredrik på Österlen”, book release, own bubble at Systembolaget – among other things.
But eight years ago, when the couple took over the Eklaholm estate dating back to the 17th century, Örebro’s son Karl Fredrik studied to be a landscape architect and commuted to school in Alnarp.
Then the plan was to run a small shop. Karl Fredrik is a trained florist and gardener and as a student he needed extra money.
Some of the neighbors in the small Hagestad radby were skeptical of the plans. Until then, the village had been fairly anonymous, a “hidden gem”, as Karl Fredrik puts it.
– Some said “no, not another place like this.” How do you think it will go?”. Then they meant roughly a gift shop in Österlen. But I had other visions.
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The plan was to run a small shop. It became a whole commercial garden. And a TV hit.
1 / 2Photo: Peter Wixtröm
Took the bubble to the village
Karl Fredrik and Petter didn’t want to fit into the village like some “snobby city dwellers” (even though both grew up in the countryside). When the store opened, all the neighbors received a note in the mailbox inviting Karl Fredrik to a “VIP opening”.
– We said that now we will talk to farmers in the farmers’ way. And we want to do that. We have come to this village because we want to live here and establish ourselves, make contacts and get help from each other. Not for pumping a few summer months.
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“There was someone who said we took the bubble to the village,” laughs Karl Fredrik.
1 / 2Photo: Peter Wixtröm
They rolled out the red carpet, filled tubs with bubbly and bought locally produced sausage, which Petter had to stand and roast in the kitchen.
– Someone said we took the bubble to the village. “So much bubble, ooh bubble, bubble!”. Yes, but in the past it might have been something brought out on New Year’s Eve and possibly when someone turns 50. Here it was just like that, happy Monday!
“People sat in the cars and cried”
Karl Fredrik became a TV star at the same time as the corona pandemic took off. And on the already well-visited farm, it completely exploded.
– When it was at its peak, when it just hit, then we had a four kilometer queue outside here. There were people sitting in the cars and crying because they didn’t get in, they had gone from Gothenburg and couldn’t get a seat.
The chaos was too much for the neighbors in Hagestad radby.
– They said that this is not sustainable – you have to find a solution, this is not possible. And we didn’t want it that way either.
A relative of Petter took it upon himself to create a booking system, which was ready four days later. Since then, visitors get a “slot time” where they have half an hour to park.
Bought “secret villa”
Today, there can be up to 2,000 visitors in one day during high season.
– Petter has said that it is like Disneyland. That was perhaps when it was the most. But I like being here. I love this place, so I don’t want to move from here.
But the uproar takes its toll, and the couple wanted to find a place to rest. About a year ago, they bought a villa in Österlen – in a secret location.
– There we get a few days when we can get away. Because even though we love this, it’s work everywhere you look.
Buying another house is something that can stick in people’s eyes, says Karl Fredrik.
– Yes, that is a bit difficult for Swedes to understand. Either you have a house or an apartment or something, and then maybe you have a summer cottage. But having two houses or double accommodation, many find it difficult to understand.
“Want to put one there”
Karl Fredrik wants to be clear that most people in the village are happy with them and think that the business has lifted the whole village.
But there are certainly moments where the Swedish jealousy appears. Someone has wondered how much Karl Fredrik has paid to be on television.
– We have been reported for things, for which we have had planning permission of course. Someone who has submitted anonymously, as well. Either you’re afraid that we won’t preserve the farm as it is, or you’re jealous and want to put one there.
– But those are extremes. We feel very welcome.
“I’m like an aunt”
Do you feel like an Easterner?
– Yes. Why? Partly because I am associated with Österlen, of course. Partly because I love Österlen. I think that in order to feel like a native of Örebro or Österlen, or a Norrköping resident or something, you have to love the place.
– It’s the proximity to nature, the fields, the fields, the sea of course. The winds of change. The only negative has to be that it is so windy. There is nothing else negative.
Is there anything you’re missing here?
– If we didn’t have the business where we meet a lot of customers and friends, I think we would have gotten a little bored.
The average age is quite high here.
– Very high average age. My clients are tantalizing, and their men too for that matter. And I can say sometimes I’m like an aunt. There is nothing wrong, because we have the same interests.
FACTSKarl Fredrik about…
…the Österlen dream:
– I think that with running a bed and breakfast, painting a little and going down to the sea, you realize quite quickly that there is no immediate time to go down to the sea – because you have to iron, mangle the sheets, prepare breakfast and Other. And it can be part of the dream, as long as you are a little aware of it.
… to live in Österlen when the tourists pour in:
– It is completely unrealistic that such nice beaches would be for the small clique that lives here. It’s great fun that we get to show it off. Then it is very problematic if people park so that rescue vehicles do not arrive, or if people litter. You have to be a little smart, after all, we go down and swim in the evening when the water is still warm and the sun is shining down on Sandhammaren.
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FACT Document: Österlen
Aftonbladet’s Nora Fernstedt and Peter Wixtröm travel through Skåne’s mythical east coast.
In Österlen there are open landscapes, artists, celebrities, luxury villas by the sea and a horde of tourists a few months of the year.
But here there are also regular farmers and a local population who feel pushed out as tourism gets closer and closer.
Old fishing villages have become the cream of the crop where the villas are sold at Stockholm prices and according to the brokers, the Österlen brand is only getting stronger and stronger.
And who gets to call themselves an Easterner is not an easy question to answer.
– Coca-cola has its ingredients, then the Österlen brand must also have its limits. We who live here love this place so much that we want to limit it, says historian Lena Alebo.
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