The Fårö night - "Fårönatta"

Once a year, the small island north of Gotland - Fårö (at the very northern tip of the map above ) celebrates an entire night every September with a fiesta which is marking The Grand Finale of Summer. It is called "Fårönatta" (The special night of Fårö).

Fårö the small island separated from Gotland by a short ferry trip, is perhaps internationally mostly known through famous film director Ingemar Bergman who spent a large part of his life here. He brought a spectrum of Swedish and international actors to the island and made Fårö a superb setting for many of his great films.The film maker lived here where he had his heart, work, studios and home..

(Ingemar Bergman right with Sven Nykvist)
It is well known that the Fårö natives portected the genius´ privacy carefully. It is said that you never got the right information on how to find his house situated near a stony beach.
http://bergmancenter.se/en/
During the years he lived there, you could ask any of the locals about the whereabouts of his houses and they most likely would point in all kinds of directions and scratch their heads respectively..
The island provided settings for his Fårö trilogy of: Hour of the Wolf, The Passion of Anna and Skammen, as well as Persona. Andrey Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice was also filmed on Fårö.

Link to Ingmar Bergman official website Face To Face.

Back to Fårönatta. Our first stop were at wellknown Kuten´s - a great place for nostalgica with focus on the 60´s. At first, the sight of a junk yard meets you. Here, Kuten, - a groovy ..
(Photo: Sverige Radio)
..hippie drop-in, runs a great Creperie speak-easy which serves lovely galettes and crepes. And a book store across the road which bears quite some resemblance to "Shakespeare´s" intellectual hang-out in Paris.

This is the psychedelic entrance! (below)

Next to the Creperie, there is an out-of-sight bar brimming with all the paraphernalia bling bling from the 50´and 60´s you can think of. On stage, bands play music from the era and here they celebrate odd evenings with vigils like the death parties of Elvis´s and Marilyn´s and other deceased icons!
And all courses on the menu carry names like "Galette Hopper," " Brando" or "Marilyn" etc. (I had the Hopper with Chorizo, with all kinds of goodies baked á lá minute into the delicious durum pancakes. You bet your sweet bippie!!)

The entrance. Far out! Can you dig it?

Bar graffiti. Groovy man, groovy!
The Blue Grass band rehearsing before the invasion of the Party Night crowds.
Bar action, hey hey let´s get stoooned..
(Photo: Gotland net)

A gas pump from Anno Dazumal.

The junk that meets the eye!

On the northern tip of Fårö..

Fårö Lighthouse is a Swedish lighthouse located on the island´s easternmost tip.
In the 19th century there had been many complaints from sea authorities that the coastlines on Gotland had very few lighthouses. So the decision was made to build one on the north side of Gotland. This lighthouse was constructed one year after the one on Hoburgen at the south tip of Gotland.The light ran on a colza oil lamp at first. In 1882 a paraffin lamp replaced the old one, and in 1953 it was electrified. From 1891 to 1976 the tower had a first-order Fresnel lens installed in its lantern which made the lighthouse very powerful. It is remote-controlled since 1976 and owned by the Swedish Maritime Administration. (Wikipedia)
Unfortunately, the lighthouse was not open to the public this year on this night.

Langhammars at Fårö. (photo: Gotland net)
(photo: Gotland net)
The Laterna Magica theater, (Laterna Magica is the title of Ingemar Bergman´s biography).. held a surprise performance in the night..
(photo: Gotland net)
The "FåröNatta" event is an effort to present Fårö as an all -year-round-island-resort, where a number of enterprises, businesses, individuals and associations join forces to show that Fårö is very much alive all year around!

And all through the night once a year!

Every 30 minutes there are ferries from Gotland to the island. The easiest way to travel is by car (for rent in Visby). In the summer you can reach Gotland by plane from Stockholm, Göteborg, Ängelholm, Sundsvall, Ronneby, Norrköping, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Oslo and Hamburg as well.