Dalarna’s museum, in Falun, Sweden

From Stockholm Airport, I and Zexuan made our way by car directly to the Dalarna region. It is the renowned bagpipe region of Sweden. The Dalarna museum is in the town of Falun.
Simon Langwagen welcomed us into the museum and gave us full access to the bagpipe collection.
Special thanks to Jennie Tiderman, that organized all the details of the visit, but was unfortunately unable to meet us in person. We do hope to meet you very soon.
The museum hosts some special instruments that although not unknown to the bagpipe research community could be afforded further study.
We were joined by Jonh Goodacre, that drive all the way from Rättvi to meet us. Believe it or not, John is the nephew of the English bagpipe maker Julian Goodacre, and he is a piper himself. He has permanently relocated to Sweden, speaks the language and is fully integrated into the Swedish folk music scene. He works at the Folkmusikens hus in Rättvi, which we visited that same day. Such are the “coincidences” of the folk music world, that are not wasted on me. The niche of the European folk music community never ceases to warm my heart, giving me a great sense of hope for the future of our field.

Thank you, Simon, Jennie and Jonh.

Also a word of appreciation for fellow Swedish pipers and researchers David Åsbrink, Jonas Åkerlund and Anders Norudde for there invaluable advice and information in preparing this fieldwork visit to Sweden.