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Rave party to be held at Sweden’s weirdest tourist attraction

For years it has been not much more than an oddity, an unused tourist attraction that drew guests for its sheer absurdity and wildly out-of-place feeling. But soon, it will be the location of a three-day rave expected to draw electronic music fans from across Scandinavia.

Published: 5 December 2018 15:41 CET
Rave party to be held at Sweden's weirdest tourist attraction
Ready to dance the night away here? Photo: Sisyfosgruppen
It is, of course, the Dragon Gate hotel, one of the strangest places in Sweden. Located just off the E4 motorway near Gävle (Sweden's most random city), Dragon Gate is a massive oriental-looking construction that would seem more at home in rural China than Scandinavia. 
 
The brainchild of Chinese billionaire Jingchun Li, the project converted the former Hotel Älvkarlen into an elaborate Chinese-inspired square consisting of a hotel, restaurant, museum and souvenir store. The project dates back to 2004 but not a single guest has ever stayed in the hotel. Despite a grand opening concert in August 2014, the hotel has never actually opened.
 

The rave's first guests have already arrived. Photo: Sisyfosgruppen
 
There was even a period in which it appeared that the entire thing would be shut down before the hotel ever opened its doors, but that was written off to a mix-up owing to a “strange message” posted on the hotel’s website. 
 
In August, the investment group Sisyfosgruppen purchased Dragon Gate from Jingchun and promised to “make something great out of this unique property”. 
 
While the ambitious project – there are 200 replica terracotta soldiers in the museum, an enormous Guanyin statue and there have even been plans to build the world's largest Buddha and bring in a live panda bear – may not have ever lived up to Jingchun’s original vision, the site is going to be home to what promises to be one wild weekend. 
 
 
On Monday it was announced that the Scandinavia Electronic Festival will be held at Dragon Gate May 31st through June 2nd. 
 
The group Technostate Sweden said the festival will be the culmination of “years of struggle” and it promised a weekend that “will go down in history”. 
 
Although sleep may be the last thing on the minds of those who plan to rave the night away, organizers said that the long-delayed hotel would have 170 rooms available for those “who want to live a bit special” during the weekend party. There will also be camping available in the abutting forest. 
 
Tickets for the festival go on sale on Monday, December 10th. 

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ANGELA MERKEL

Merkel’s CDU party postpone conference to elect leader over pandemic

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party said Monday it would push back a congress planned for early December to elect a new leader due to a surge in coronavirus infections.

Published: 26 October 2020 12:34 CET
Merkel's CDU party postpone conference to elect leader over pandemic
Norbert Röttgen, Armin Laschet and Friedrich Merz are contenders to take over as CDU leader. Photo: DPA

The conservative party's top brass will reexamine the situation in mid-December to determine its next steps, general secretary Paul Ziemiak said.

“Going by the current situation, a congress with attendees on December 4th would not be allowed,” said Ziemiak.

The CDU was still hoping to hold an in-person congress at a later date rather than a video conference, but acknowledged that the online format might be the only option if the pandemic cannot be brought under control.

Merkel protegee Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer took over as the leader of the Christian Democratic Union in 2018, after the veteran chancellor said she would not seek a new mandate at general elections next year.

But the race for the party's top job was thrown wide open when Kramp-Karrenbauer resigned just a few months into the post over her handling of a regional election scandal.

The chief of the CDU traditionally leads it and its smaller Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union to the polls.

The chosen candidate would have a claim on the post of chancellor and be in pole position to replace Merkel should the conservative bloc win next year's election.

Who are the contenders?

Three men are currently vying for the job — Armin Laschet, state premier of Germany's most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia, corporate lawyer Friedrich Merz and foreign affairs expert Norbert Röttgen.

But their battle has been overshadowed by the pandemic.

All three are anxious to regain the media spotlight, particularly as a fourth potential replacement for Merkel has emerged – not from the CDU, but from sister party CSU.

Bavarian state premier and CSU leader Markus Söder has repeatedly stressed that his place is in Bavaria. But his tough attitude on halting virus transmission has won him plaudits.

In contrast, former favourite Laschet, 59, has lost momentum as he took a different approach to Söder's hardline clampdown in Bavaria to halt the march of the virus.

Merz, a 64-year-old millionaire and old Merkel rival, is popular with the CDU's most conservative faction.

But he has found little support for his ultra-liberal positions at a time when unprecedented state intervention is desperately required to prop up the economy.

Centrist Röttgen, 55, a former environment minister dismissed by Merkel in 2012 who is now the head of the German parliament's foreign affairs committee, has also struggled to get attention.

The latest opinion poll on who Germans would like to see as their next leader has Söder topping the charts far ahead at 52 percent – more than 20 points distant from any of the three CDU contenders.

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