THE ARK is back. Twenty years after the debut and 10 years after the announcement that they decided to quit, it is now clear that one of the greatest Swedish bands of the 21st century will re-emerge for a tour this summer. A tour that obviously takes the band to Östersund and Storsjöyran!
Storsjöyran has been a red thread in THE ARK’s career, the band belongs to the many artists that the festival discovered before breaking through. In 2000, they made their debut on one of Storsjöyran’s smallest stages, before even releasing their first album. It first came in the fall of that year. But already and then it was clear that they would soon take on larger arenas. The following year, the band stood on the main stage and then had a couple of legendary gigs at the festival before the farewell concert in 2011.
Hits like “It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane”, “Calleth You, Cometh I”, “One of Us is Gonna Die Young”, “The Worrying Kind”, “Breaking Up with God”, “Let Your Body Decide”, “Father of a Son” and many others are today an obvious part of Swedish pop history and the soul of the people.
Our idea is that the presidential speech and The Arks show should seamlessly blend into each other and be a spectacular experience that only Yran can offer.
Andréa Wiktorsson, artist booker
Many in recent years have wanted THE ARK to reassemble the troops. Especially as the sextet left a void left behind that no one has been able to fill. THE ARK was always a little more colorful, theatrical, unashamed and far-sighted than anyone else. The band’s message of daring to challenge norms, be proud of who you are and love what you want is a life attitude that is at least as relevant today as when they broke through. Not to mention even more in a time when the outside world is increasingly characterised by new moralism and conservative values.
We have never regretted laying down, but we have been missing each other, missing hanging out as a band and meeting the audience who like our music and who have been in the wet and dry. As the 20-year anniversary of the debut album was approaching, we felt that we wanted to celebrate it by standing together on stage again for a summer. We want to bid on a maximized show, the total Ark experience. We are so tagged and looking forward to going out and meeting the audience who want to hear us, greet Ola Salo, Mikael Jepson, Martin Axén, Jens Andersson, Lasse Ljungberg and Sylvester Schlegel.
The Ark will play on Saturday, August 1st, directly after the Presidential speech, thus ending the festival.