One week until Sweden’s biggest innovation fest H22 City Expo officially opens in Helsingborg

Helsingborg is getting ready to kick off H22 City Expo with an eclectic mix of music, circus, aerial acrobats, and dance at the opening ceremony in Slottshagen, on 31 May. HRH Crown Princess Victoria is delivering the inaugural speech, in the presence of HM The Queen, and the new Swedish pop sensation GERD is performing her internationally acclaimed tunes for the crowds.

H22 City Expo, 30 May – 3 July, is the single biggest event for innovation and sustainable urban development in the Nordic region in 2022. Together with 100 official partners from the business sector, academia, and civil society, the City of Helsingborg presents more than 700 programme features that highlight the role of innovation in shaping the smart and sustainable city of the future.

The opening ceremony starts at 4 pm on 31 May in Slottshagen, next to Helsingborg’s famous medieval tower, Kärnan. Here are some of the highlights at the 35-day expo:

More than 100 international conferences and meetings
The expo offers more than 100 meetings and conferences. Leaders, researchers, and experts from around the world are gathering in Helsingborg to meet and lay the foundation for the smart cities of the future. Explore innovations from some of the world’s most sustainable cities at Urban Brilliance, or take part in the Urban Future conference – the world's largest meeting place for CityChangers. Utopia Lab is a forum for young people to tackle future challenges, while Hex22 invites you to 100,000 hours of hacking for the thoughtful city over the course of 22 days. More on the conferences here.

Green innovation and sustainable solutions
Some of the city’s most progressive projects that are driving the green transition are on display during the expo. The city’s development facility RecoLab, recently awarded as ‘wastewater project of the year’ at the Global Water Awards, is home to a unique wastewater management system that recycles nutrients and water. Vera Park, the city’s former landfill, is an innovative industrial park and test bed for environment-related solutions. A new biochar plant will be open to visitors during H22 City Expo. Helsingborg is the first municipality to use blockchain technology to track the journey of cod from the boat all the way to the city’s schools and care homes, ensuring a sustainable process. Sweden’s second largest container port is testing a new high-tech electric road concept from Swedish company Elonroad, and Volvo Truck Center and local energy company Öresundskraft are working together to build a public charging station for electric trucks, which will be the first of its kind.

The future landscape of architecture, design and urban planning
On the elongated breakwater, “Parapeten”, focus will be on conversations about what architecture does and can do - with the aim of broadening the scope of architecture for and with visitors. In a greenhouse on a wooden base in the middle of Oceanhamnen you can meet some of Sweden’s leading players within GreenTech. "Skogen" is an architectural experiment in nature where IKEA has invited young, creative minds from across the globe to show how they inhabit nature and how they have reconnected with nature in new ways.

Culture, music, food and entertainment
H22 City Expo offers captivating, one-of-a-kind cultural attractions throughout the 35 days. Build monumental constructions out of cardboard with the French visual artist Olivier Grossetête. Experience a sound and light show on water at the new Steam Ferry Park, or visit Arquitectura de Fira – an amusement park made out of only recycled materials. Mission Roosevelt takes over the city and gives you a collective performance where you, as the audience, sit in wheelchairs and become the actors, test subjects, and the recipients. WILD is a powerful dance-circus production that explores our relationship to the natural environment and creates an urban forest in the everyday of the city.

World-famous rock band The Sounds will be the first act ever to perform a live concert on top of Helsingborg’s epic medieval fortress tower Kärnan - the city’s most famous landmark that dates back to 1320. Throughout the 35 days of H22 City Expo, there will also be music and entertainment on the outdoor stage Grytan in Slottshagen. Music acts such as The Hellacopters, Estraden, Sarah Klang, DâM-FunK, and Phlake will also take the stage outside of Magasin 405 in Oceanhamnen.

Award-winning chef Daniel Berlin is behind several spectacular events, such as surprise guest appearances, workshops, and exclusive dining experiences. Around twenty exclusive dining occasions will be arranged with Swedish and international guest chefs. All food actors who are active within the framework of H22 City Expo have signed a food and beverage manifesto with sustainability principles to reduce the environmental impact.

The entire H22 City Expo programme can be found here.

Representatives of the media are welcome to apply for media accreditation here.

For more information and media inquiries, please contact:
Maria Ploberg, Press Officer at H22 City Expo, +46 738-22 43 67, maria.ploberg@helsingborg.se

Helsingborg – The city of expos:
Helsingborg has a proud tradition of organising major expos. As early as 1955, the H55 craft and design fair attracted a million visitors. In 1999, H99 became the forerunner of a wave of housing exhibitions around Sweden. The citywide innovation fest H22 City Expo marks the third time that Helsingborg welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city.