Walpurgis Night in Borggården becomes Virtualborg at home – with hat donning ceremony, spring-themed songs and speeches
Walpurgis Night in the Borggården at Linköping Castle has become an important tradition for Linköpings Studentsångare, students and Linköping residents. It is here and now that we celebrate the arrival of spring. This year, just as many other events, the celebration will take place remotely. It goes without saying that we will offer traditional spring-themed songs, a hat donning ceremony, and speeches, this year from Jan-Ingvar Jönsson, vice-chancellor of Linköping University, Carl Fredrik Graf, county governor, and August Goldhahn, president of the StuFF student union.
For nearly 50 years now, Linköpings Studentsångare (the Linköping University Male Voice Choir) has arranged a hat donning ceremony and welcomed spring with song in Borggården at Linköping Castle on Walpurgis Night, a wonderful and highly appreciated part of the Linköping celebrations on this special day. The tradition had to be changed last year as a consequence of the pandemic, and we were treated to a remote event instead. Participation broke all records, with over 3,000 viewings on and immediately after Walpurgis Night. Again this year, physical celebrations in Borggården are not possible, and Linköpings Studentsångare has been forced to realign.
“Walpurgis Night is an important tradition for many people, and we are longing to offer hope and spring joy to our audience again this year. In 2018, we used digital methods to broadcast from the live performance in Borggården. This makes it possible for many more people to take part in the celebrations, which is a wonderful and important feeling”, says Christina Hörnell, conductor of Linköpings Studentsångare. “Most of all, of course,” she continues, “we would like to sing together and meet the audience live, but while we wait for this to be possible, we are this year releasing a film. We see this as the best solution. Now we hope to beat last year’s record for the number of participants.”
The new film, produced by Björn Rallare, will be released on Walpurgis Night, 30 April 2021. It includes a traditional hat donning ceremony, spring-themed songs in new guises, and speeches from Jan-Ingvar Jönsson, vice-chancellor of Linköping University, Carl Fredrik Graf, county governor, and August Goldhahn, chairman of the StuFF student union, who also is song artist and managing chairman of Linköpings Studentsångare.
Get your student hat out from the wardrobe and join in, but at home.
We look forward to seeing you at a rather different Walpurgis Night celebration!
When: 30 April, 3.00 pm
Link to the Walpurgis Night film: lkss.se/valborg
The film will remain available for viewing after the event.
For more information, please contact:
Christina Hörnell, director musices, conductor of Linköpings Studentsångare
Christina.hornell@liu.se
(+46) 70 089 6922
Linköpings Studentsångare curate and evolve the traditions of Nordic male voice choir music, and work actively to include music written by both male and female composers. The repertoire is large and broad, including classic male voice choir music and contemporary works, and the choir is often collaborating with other choirs both male, mixed and female. Linköpings Studentsångare were founded in 1972 by the name Lihkören. The choir act as ambassadors for Linköping University through concerts and tours both in Sweden and abroad.
