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WHAT'S ON IN SWEDEN

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What’s on: January 31st – February 7th

Gothenburg's Film Festival is underway, the Swedish capital has got its skates on as it hosts the European figure skating championships for the first time in decades, while Jokkmokk in northern Sweden is stepping back in time.

Published: 28 January 2015 23:22 CET

If you're in west Sweden this week, you can be whisked away on some wild global adventures via Gothenburg's Film Festival. Prepare to enter a Japanese futuristic world where Tokyo is ruled by rapping gangsters, trek through the Finnish woods or live through the trauma of a divorce in Israel.

The 38th Gothenburg Film Festival is being held until February 2nd, welcoming over 500 films from around 80 different countries. It also offers over 40 seminars, conferences, lectures and master classes from internationally recognized filmmakers. The slogan of this year's festival is “Things you don’t see every day”, with a core focus on Japan, celebrating its captivating movie culture by showcasing six new films from accredited and upcoming directors.

One of Gothenburg's arthouse cinemas. Photo: Gothenburg Film Festival

For live sporting action, head to Stockholm’s Ericsson Globe Arena where professional figure-skaters from all over Europe are coming together to compete for medals in the European Figure Skating Championships. It’s been decades since Stockholm has hosted the internationally-renowned competition, which consists of five intense days of triple jumps, flips and passionate dancing. Sweden’s leading competitors are Alexander Majorov and sisters Viktoria and Joshi Helgesson.

The European Figure Skating Championships are already underway. Photo: TT

If you're already feeling nostalgic about Sweden's Christmas markets, why not head to northern Sweden where a traditional winter fair is plugging the gap. Jokkmokk’s Market, is open from February 5th to 7th. It is rich in history, having been founded in the 17th century by Swedish royalty in order to control trade, collect taxes and spread Christianity. Expect some cool snow sculptures too.

For many more tips on things to see and do across Sweden this weekend, click on our interactive chart below.

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OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits.

SEE ALSO: What’s the tipping etiquette in Sweden?

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user).

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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