Frihamnen The Anniversary Festival Opening Concert

Sparkling opening concert with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and famous pop artists at Gothenburg's Anniversary Festival in Frihamnen!

Concert length: 1 h 30 min
Free entry
Dates & Tickets
The Anniversary FestivalParticipants

The mighty Gothenburg Symphony – Sweden’s National Orchestra – opens Gothenburg’s Anniversary Festival in Frihamnen with a sparkling concert together together with a bunch of well-known Gothenburg artists: Ebbot Lundberg, Maia Hirasawa, Timo Räisänen, Vic Vem, Yukimi Nagano, Katarina Hemlin and some secret guests. Sissela Kyle is the cicerone and the concert is conducted under the direction of Hans Ek together with the August family and Stefan Sporsén.

The event in Frihamnen is free, the area opens at 15.00 and we start playing at 18.00.

artisterna som medverkar under invigningskonserten

Gothenburg’s official anniversary song

When Gothenburg celebrated 350 years, Lasse Dahlqvist wrote one of his most played songs “Welcome to Gothenburg”. Ahead of Gothenburg’s 400th anniversary, the anniversary and The Brewhouse Award attracted songwriters to write the official anniversary song. During The Brewhouse Award in January 2020, the winning entry, ”Vi vill leva, vi vill dö i Göteborg”, written by Katarina Hemlin, was presented.

Lyrics

Vid Gullbergs Kaj blev vi kvar igår kväll
Efter bad i Poseidon, och promenad längs vår älv
Jag vilar i tystnaden efter allt skrål
Tänk att Håkan fyllde Ullevi igår

Vi ser dagen komma här uppe från bron
Hur hamnen är färgad av gryningens ton
Regnet faller, men nog är det väl så
att det känns mest som hemma just då

Stanna och känn en stund
Hur en gammal stad är ung
Låt ropen eka över gator och torg
Vi vill leva, vi vill dö i Göteborg

Vyn från Skansen Kronan värmer hjärtat alltjämt
Bekymmer försvinner som om vinden har vänt
Tiden kan stanna och tiden kan gå
Så länge vårt hem här kan nås

Kvarter har förfallit och byggts upp på nytt
Men själen i staden har aldrig förbytts
Alla dagar har satt sina spår
I 400 år

Stanna och känn en stund
Hur en gammal stad är ung
Låt ropen eka över gator och torg
Vi vill leva, vi vill dö i Göteborg

Stanna och känn en stund
Hur en gammal stad är ung
Låt ropen eka över gator och torg
Vi vill leva, vi vill dö i Göteborg

Låt ropen eka över gator och torg
Vi ska leva, vi ska dö i Göteborg

The Anniversary Festival 2-5 June

The big Anniversary Festival takes place in Frihamnen in Gothenburg 2-5 June. The large festival area will be filled with a variety of quality music, performances, food, dance, activities and much, much more. Three stages will give you everything from pop music and orchestra to dance-bands and rock music. There will also be delicious and interesting food offerings in three areas.

Several choirs will also take place on stage; Körcentrum Väst with several hundred singers on stage in front of a musical written by Sting, and Hjärta Göteborg will have concerts with choirs and famous names. Stay tuned for more program news and artist releases!

With the Anniversary Festival as the starting point, the celebration of the city of Gothenburg continues all summer until 3 September and is rounded off with the Anniversary Finale with the Free Harbor Days, the Culture Festival and the Gothenburg Marathon.

Find Frihamnen

Friday 2 June 2023: The event ends at approx. 19.30

Participants

The Gothenburg Symphony, called "one of the world's most formidable orchestras" by the Guardian, has toured the USA, Europe, Japan and the Far East and performed at major music centres and festivals throughout the world. Chief conductor is Santtu-Matias Rouvali who started his tenure in 2017. Barbara Hannigan and Christoph Eschenbach are principal guest conductors since 2019. Already at the orchestra's very first years, the great Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar was appointed principal conductor, contributing strongly to the Nordic profile of the orchestra by inviting his colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to conduct their own works. Subsequent holders of the post include Sergiu Comissiona, Sixten Ehrling and Charles Dutoit. During Neeme Järvi's tenure (1982-2004), the orchestra became a major international force. In 1997 it was appointed the National Orchestra of Sweden. During his celebrated tenure as music director (2007-2012), Gustavo Dudamel took the Orchestra to major music centres and festivals in Europe, making acclaimed appearances at BBC Proms and Vienna Musikverein. The list of prominent guest conductors has included Wilhelm Furtwängler, Pierre Monteux, Herbert von Karajan, Myung-Whun Chung, Herbert Blomstedt and Sir Simon Rattle. The orchestra also runs extensive concert projects for children, and regularly releases digital live concerts free on gsoplay.se. The orchestra has been involved in many prestigious recording projects, the latest one the complete Sibelius Symphonies with Santtu-Matias Rouvali for Alpha Classics. Earlier, the orchestra has issued over 100 recordings on BIS, Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, Farao Classics and several other labels. The Gothenburg Symphony is owned by the Region Västra Götaland.
Hans Ek conductor
Augustifamiljen
Ebbot Lundberg
Timo Räisänen
Maia Hirasawa
Yukimi Nagano
Vic Vem
Katarina Hemlin
Questions? Contact the ticket office
031-726 53 00
Röda sammetsstolar i konsertsalong.

Everything you need to know before your visit

Here you will find all the necessary information that you need to know about before your magical visit in the Concert Hall.

Concert experience

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