World Motoring Heritage Year is celebrated all over Sweden on June 6

Swedes have since 2009 celebrated Motorhistoriska Dagen, Historic Vehicle Day, on their National Day, June 6. This year the day becomes part of a worldwide celebration as 2016 was named World Motoring Heritage Year by FIVA, the international federation of historic vehicles.

Motorhistoriska Riksförbundet, the Swedish Federation for Historic Vehicles, represents the historic vehicles movement in Sweden and monitors political issues, manages contacts with authorities and organizations, as well as providing advice and information.

– These vehicles are so much more than a nostalgic feature on our roads, they are above all an impressive mobile public museum that is operated without any state or municipal contributions, explains the Swedish federations president Peter Edqvist. Within the historic vehicle movement, there exists technical expertise and skills that are important to maintain for the future. This movement also provides knowledge about the history of the vehicles and how they contributed to the development of society.

Motorhistoriska Riksförbundet’s 100,000 members in 200 clubs are committed to safeguarding and spreading their cultural heritage across the entire country.

– It is their vehicles that provide living history – and smiles – on our roads, often in connection with one of the thousands of events that take place each year, says Peter Edqvist. Among them is Motorhistoriska Dagen, Historic Vehicle Day, which is held on June 6 every year when we celebrate our cultural heritage together – with close to one hundred events all over Sweden.

This year the Swedish Historic Vehicle Day becomes part of an international celebration as FIVA, the international federation of historic vehicles, has named 2016 as World Motoring Heritage Year – both in recognition of our motoring history, and to celebrate a new dawn for the historic vehicle movement throughout the world. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of FIVA, the Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens.

More about Motorhistoriska Riksförbundet, the Swedish Federation for Historic Vehicles: http://mhrf.se/english

More about Motorhistoriska Dagen, Historic Vehicle Day, with link to all the events (in Swedish): http://mhrf.se/6juni

FIVA has announced the full program of 2016 events around the world that will benefit, in various ways, from UNESCO’s patronage of FIVA’s World Motoring Heritage Year (WMHY). http://fiva.org/newsite/category/wmhy/