HALMSTAD - Per Gessle can flash his well-known V-sign. There will be a summer concert with Gyllene Tider at Örjans Vall in Halmstad.

  Halmstad's local governing body (kommun) has given the go ahead for one, possibly two, concerts in July and thus Gessle's dream can be fulfilled: to break the attendence record at his hometown football (soccer) arena.

  It's been held so far by Per's favorite team, IS Halmia, when on October 13, 1962, a night game against Landskrona Bois was seen by 20,381 people.

  Gyllene Tider can also count on breaking their own Halmstad record which originated from a concert at Stora Torg in June 1995 when around 15,000 attended the group's first real reunion.

  It will be the first time Örjans Vall will be used as a rock arena. Earlier proposals have been rejected because of concern over damage to the grass during the Swedish soccer season.

• Hallands Posten's article (In Swedish)

  Ann Johansson, information director for Halmstad's Kommun, has been there for the discussions between the county and EMA, the concert organizers. "It's great if this can happen," she says. "Everyone I've talked to thinks the same.

  "But it's of course a giant arrangement and many pieces must fall in place before all is settled. We're just in the beginning of the planning so far," she says.

  Considering that a well-attended soccer game attracts about 10,000 people, one realizes that a concert that may attract double that number (to say the least) will set high demands on the kommun as well as the organizer.

  "For example, a bleacher has to be disassembled and a stage has to be built. The grass needs to be covered so it won't be ruined. The field must be playable a week after the concert," Johansson says.

  Nobody knows anything definate about the cost of mounting such a concert yet. At least no one will put a figure to it. But as Johansson says, "It's not a small deal. I guess sponsors will have to be found. The local economic life may possibly draw some perks from Halmstad being noticed by Sweden yet another summer. Just that may be worth a few pennies."



– Reported by Anna-Karin Forsberg for Hallands Posten.