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full screen During the Walborg Fair evening, calls to SOS Alarm increase significantly. Archive image. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
The eve of Valborg fair is one of the year’s noisiest holidays and the emergency phones at 112 are ringing hot. At the same time as police cases increase during the evening, bus calls also increase.
For blue light personnel, Walborg fair night is one of the busiest evenings of the year. During Walborg evening 2023, 5,915 calls came in to SOS Alarm – while on a normal evening and night, an average of 4,305 calls came in, the company’s statistics show.
Last year, Gotland stood out among the counties, with an increase in calls of 125 percent. Close behind were Västmanland and Uppsala with 80 percent.
– In Uppsala, Valborg is very big with many travelers and young people. It is a tradition to celebrate quite hard, where the celebration lasts for several days and Walborg becomes a kind of culmination, says Douglas Norström, press officer at SOS Alarm.
Most of the calls go to the police, and during Walborg evening, they increase by around 50 percent. Often the conversations are about drunk people who have started to fight. Conversations about fires are also more common during Valborg, and care issues increase by around 35 percent.
At the same time as other calls are increasing, wrong calls are also increasing where people do not have sufficiently urgent care questions. But bus calls are also increasing. Together, this is an increase of approximately 45 percent.
– It is probably a lower threshold for people to call in on Walborg night given what has happened during the evening, says Douglas Norström.