This week, the revelers flock to Visby for dancing and late summer evenings.
But the traditional Stockholm week has a dark, and smelly, backside.
– This week is notorious for being a disaster in the city, says garbage collector Fredrik Hedberg The municipal worker.
The party starts in Båstad, then moves on to Visby and finally lands in the French Riviera of Saint Tropez. But even if Stockholm Week has made itself known for a lot, not everyone knows about the more boring part of the party: the garbage.
But one person who is fully aware of this is garbage collector Fredrik Hedberg, who works on Gotland. He usually helps to clean up Visby when the tourists move in.
– Stockholm week in particular is notorious for being a disaster in the city. They get in the way and accessibility becomes markedly worse for us, he says The municipal worker.
“Cans and bottles fly out of car windows”
During his time as a garbage collector, Fredrik has seen most things, he tells the newspaper.
– Vessels stand in the wrong direction and they throw wildly, it’s overflowing everywhere. When they go on long trips, they throw out McDonalds bags or Max bags, there are fast food leftovers along the side of the road. Pawn cans and cider bottles fly out of car windows.
Want to limit tourism
And he now wishes something would be done about the situation. In order to reduce littering, he thinks that tourism should be limited in some way.
– But I don’t have a concrete solution, you can’t refuse people to come here, he tells Kommunalarbetaren.