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Old August 9th, 2015 #1
Ian Smith son
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Default Sweden's Folk Musicians Against Racism join chorus against far right

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Stockholm festival sees people of all ages gather to take Swedish folk music and traditional costume back from the anti-immigrant SD party

On the cobbles in front of Hasselby castle – a peach-coloured 17th-century confection run these days as a hotel – around 70 musicians play a stately polka on fiddles, nyckelharpa, clarinet, flute and

accordion. The youngest looks about five, the oldest in his 80s, and a handful wear Swedish traditional costume: the women in full skirts, aprons, lace collars and red woollen stockings, the men in

waistcoats, shorts and socks with ribbons. Nearby, a Danish klezmer band on a big sound stage is lifting an crowd to its feet.

But music wasn’t the only thing on the agenda at this year’s Stockholm folk festival. The mass play-in on the cobbles was a demonstration organised by a group called Folk Musicians against Racism (FMR)

and their outrage was directed squarely at the third-largest party in Sweden’s parliament, the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), who won nearly 13% of the vote in last year’s general election.

Earlier in the week, an advert on Stockholm’s metro paid for by the SD, addressing tourists in English, said: “Sorry about the mess here in Sweden. We have a serious problem with forced begging.

International gangs profit from people’s desperation. Our goverment (sic) won’t do what’s needed. But we will!”
Sweden's Folk Musicians Against Racism join chorus against far right | World news | The Guardian

 
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