Dalhalla

Draggangarna quarry produced limestone until 1990, leaving a hole about four hundred metres long and sixty deep with a lake of green groundwater at the bottom. The opera singer Margareta Dellefors proposed using it as a theatre; the acoustics turned out to be exceptional, with a natural reverberation from the rock walls, and the first performance was in 1993. It now runs a summer season of some thirty concerts across opera, classical and rock, seating around four thousand on terraces cut into the quarry side with the stage on the water's edge. The season is short because there is no roof and the nights get cold quickly.

Background

The theatre lies 7 kilometres north of Lake Siljan and Rättvik in Dalarna. Besides its depth and length, the old Draggängarna quarry is 175 metres wide. The open air theatre opened in 1995 and now has 6,000 seats, and its acoustics are rated alongside the best outdoor stages in Europe. Its season runs from June into early September with 20-30 events a year, mostly opera, choral works, jazz and popular concerts. Guest performers from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow came in 2005, the year Mikis Theodorakis celebrated his 80th birthday here, and in June 2007 Procol Harum played with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra and the Dala Sinfonietta Choir under David Firman.

Source: Wikipedia, "Dalhalla"

What to look for

• A quarry sixty metres deep - with a green lake behind the stage.
• Natural rock acoustics - the reason it works.
• Around four thousand seats - on cut terraces.
• A summer season only - roughly thirty concerts.

When to go

June to August, for a concert. An evening.

Good to know

There is no roof - concerts run in rain and it gets genuinely cold after dark. Seats are stone terraces; take a cushion. The descent and climb out are steep. Parking and traffic after events are slow.

Nearby

Rattvik is south; Orsa and Mora are north-west.

Key facts