Skaftö Island – Sweden

This remote island community of around 2000, explodes during the summer vacation to over 20,000! I played a concert with Mark Riley from Hawai’i on the last weekend of their summer. The next day, everyone left the island and it was like being in a very beautiful ghost town, almost all the shops were closed and only a few tourist stragglers were to be found enjoying the peace and quiet.

I hadn’t realised just how many islands there were on the West coast of Sweden. Thousands, with their quaint fishing villages and granite rock formations litter the shoreline from Göteborg (Gothenburg) to Norway. After a week of events it was good to get some down time, eating buckets of prawns and smoked mackerel, chatting with our wonderful host Barbro (Swedish form of Barbara) and early morning walks along slowly meandering, deserted, coastal roads, encountering stunning views at every corner.