Located along the scenic waterfront of Djurgården in Stockholm, Gröna Lund is Sweden’s oldest amusement park and a beloved cultural landmark with a history dating back to 1883.
Over the decades, the park has evolved from a simple pleasure garden into a vibrant destination, blending vintage charm with modern thrills. While its traditional wooden coasters and nostalgic carnival atmosphere celebrate over a century of entertainment, Gröna Lund continues to innovate, most recently with the addition of Pumpen, introduced in 2025.
We speak with Jan Eriksson, CEO of Gröna Lund, and Jakob Fagerström, creative director at Parks & Resorts Scandinavia, about what makes this historic park unique, its mission, and how it intends to continue innovating and creating memories for many more generations to come.
The heart of Stockholm
Gröna Lund is a city amusement park in the centre of Stockholm.
“Every Stockholmer has some sort of connection to the park, whether it’s childhood memories or growing up and going to concerts,” says Eriksson.
“What sets us apart is that we attract a slightly different mix of target groups. We have regular family visitors, of course, but we’re also particularly popular with young adults and business-to-business customers who come here for summer parties or end-of-season events. Plus, the concert side has been a major part of Stockholm’s cultural scene for over 100 years.”
From the beginning, the park has been the entertainment heart of Stockholm.
“It was the place where you could leave work behind—whether it was to play mini golf, see a cabaret, go to a concert, or dance,” says Fagerström. “We had a lot of dance halls in the beginning, and a lot of those core things still live on. We still do dance nights, and we still have a big concert scene. We’re not just about rides, even though rides are our core business.”
Another thing that makes Gröna Lund stand out is the waterfront location, he adds:
“It’s truly uniquely spectacular. You almost need to be here to see it; you need to walk along the boardwalk by our wooden coaster and see how it interacts with the city. Wherever you are in Stockholm, you will see our park. You’ll see the towers and the decorative elements. There’s a constant presence that I think makes us unique.”
Balancing heritage and innovation at Gröna Lund
For a park with such a storied history, preserving its heritage while also continuing to evolve for future generations to enjoy can be a challenge. It is, however, also an opportunity, says Eriksson.
Fagerström agrees: “You could start a park today, but you couldn’t buy a 142-year history. Our history is truly our biggest asset. It’s something we’re incredibly proud of, and something we need to cherish.
“We have a legacy, and we have a responsibility, not only to our owners but also to the city, to preserve the historical park that we are. But at the same time, when it comes to creating guest experiences, we always try to look at what’s happening now, what’s happening tomorrow, and what kinds of experiences guests will love over time, while also pushing boundaries.”
The park’s history demonstrates this, he says: “We have many prototypes; we’ve dared to go for innovation and try new things. However, at the same time, we draw a lot of inspiration from our history, in terms of design and stories. Even our colour palette is often drawn from our past.
“So, there’s a constant presence—and it’s not contradictory at all.”
Memorable moments
When it comes to the guest experience, Gröna Lund aims to deliver memorable moments, shared with friends and family.
“We have a lot of business-to-business customers and groups of young adults,” says Eriksson. “They are not here for the rides or the concerts, but to hang out together in a city location that’s a bit different from the regular bar. We want their experience to feel like Stockholm summer—core memories among friends growing up in the city.”
“Then we have families, who are more focused on the rides. But even then, we’re aiming for the same kind of core memories.
“Every Stockholmer, and a lot of Swedes in general, has some connection to Gröna Lund. They remember the old rides, and when Jakob and the creative team play with historical elements in our newer attractions, quite a few of our guests recognise those references and make that connection.
“That’s fantastic, building those kinds of core memories where the parents can connect to the history, and together with their kids, build new core memories as a family.”
The unique Gröna Lund feeling
Regardless of the target group, like most other amusement parks, the Gröna Lund team wants people to forget everyday life when they pass through the gates.
“We want it to be escapism,” says Fagerström. “We’re not a theme park; we don’t aim to transport people to another realm. The themed world is Gröna Lund. We want people to be present in our environment. However, we still want this environment to feel disconnected from everyday life.”
“That also gives us freedom when we play with themes, stories, and attractions. We almost play with themes the way a kid plays with toys. It’s about the emotion more than being true to history or doing things a certain way.
“We don’t have the space to build one single theme that doesn’t clash with another, so that’s almost how we create our own unique atmosphere. I think that also creates that very unique Gröna Lund feeling—one you won’t find anywhere else.”
Pumpen
One example of the park’s approach to balancing history and innovation is its latest ride, a Super Swing from RES Rides. Pumpen, which translates to ‘water pump,’ is the second attraction of its kind in the world and the first in Northern Europe.
Visually, it was inspired by an old cabaret venue located on the site in the 1930s, called The Peacock. “We wanted this ride to be a visual icon in this area and were inspired by that venue in terms of its Art Deco vibes,” says Fagerström.
“It’s another way of paying homage to our history, but in an under-the-radar way.”
However, the story behind Pumpen brings a new IP into the park. “The Gnuttarna IP comes from a comic book from the late ’80s. It’s about these small, fluffy, white characters that live in the Big Forest.
“When we acquired the rights to this IP, we said, we’re not a theme park. We’re not going to try to transport guests to the forest, because that wouldn’t be Gröna Lund. We have to bring these characters to us.”
The ride resembles an elaborate water pump with a backstory about the need to secure fresh drinking water for the park for the next hundred years. “But when they drilled down, little did they know they had connected to an underground river that leads to the Big Forest.
“So, once the big arms started pumping water, suddenly these fluffy figures began popping up out of the well next to it. And suddenly, the portal between the Big Forest and Gröna Lund opened.
“Now we can, in a natural way, increase their presence, one that stays true both to their story and to who we are. Pumpen is the spark of something new.”
A multigenerational approach
In terms of the new ride’s reception so far, Eriksson says:
“People like it! I had business visitors here yesterday, and we stood by the exit gates, just watching the families leave. One of the goals we had with Pumpen was really to create a ride for the entire family. So, it’s not a ride just for kids that adults join them on, or the other way around.
“We saw the results of that yesterday, standing there and watching the guests after riding. Entire families came out, and everybody was like, ‘I loved it.’”
This multigenerational approach is becoming more important in amusement parks, adds Fagerström:
“We’re seeing it as a business trend within parks, but we’re also seeing it as a demand, both internally and from our guests, to have that cross-generational experience.
“If we can find something that’s fun for both kids and adults, that means we can also get our adult groups to ride it. We know that our pure adult groups might want to do one or two rides, even though they’re here mainly for our competitive socialising, but when they do choose a ride, they’ll often opt for the more family-oriented ones.
“Like our family suspended coaster, it’s a classic among adult groups. By doing these types of rides, we’re ticking many more boxes than just the family target.”
RES Rides and Gröna Lund
Pumpen features two gondolas with 10 seats each, inviting Gröna Lund’s guests to experience feelings of weightlessness as they swing above the park. On working with Swiss ride manufacturer RES Rides, Fagerström says:
“Once we figured out that we wanted something in this area, we had a few criteria. One was to try to find an experience that felt very new. We were looking for a ride that visually looked quite different from anything else, but also, as a ride experience, was very different—and this one stood out.”
“We didn’t even really know if we liked it at first, because it looked… almost a bit weird. But there was something about it that was very intriguing. Then we tried it in Germany, and we instantly fell in love with it.
“After that, we started doing design iterations and saw that it could be a very unique visual icon for us, but also something different in terms of guest experience.”
He commends RES Rides’ spirit of innovation: “They’ve got a lot of fun ideas, especially when it comes to flat rides. But they also have a big history when it comes to family rides. I think that’s why it felt like they would be a great match for us here.”
Sustainability
Sustainability is a crucial aspect for both the park and its visitors.
“However, it can be a challenge to communicate what we do on the sustainability side,” says Eriksson. “When we compare ourselves to our sister parks, especially those handling animals, they’re closer to the sustainability issues than we are as an amusement park.”
He does, however, detail several projects:
“For example, we exchanged all our Mexican-style minced beef courses for vegetable- and soy-based choices instead. It’s now only vegetarian, which has a considerable impact.
“Since we’re a city park, sustainability in terms of transporting guests to and from us is already more or less focused on public transport. Our most significant environmental impacts currently are related to social issues, food, heating, or our development projects.”
Gröna Lund is ensuring that all its development projects incorporate sustainability from the outset.
“We’re also focusing quite a bit on the heating side. As an old park, we have several properties that date back a long way. So, when it comes to modernising heating, that’s one of the biggest environmental impacts we have.
“We have projects to minimise waste and to optimise and move more towards vegetable-based dishes.”
Fagerström says: “As a group of four parks, we’ve invested in solar power and established a solar power park that helps power our operations. All of our energy needs during the summer are produced by the solar park.”
Parks and Resorts Scandinavia
As part of this group of four parks under the Parks and Resorts Scandinavia umbrella, alongside Kolmården, Skara Sommarland and Furuvik, the management teams collaborate closely, says Eriksson:
“On both the creative and commercial sides, the group is quite strong. Jakob and his team, for example, work creatively across all four parks. We try to make use of the competencies we have group-wide as much as we can, whether it’s for purchasing, creative projects, or just learning from each other about what works.
“We are slightly different, of course. Two of our parks feature water park areas, two have zoos and animal-focused experiences, and we also offer different-sized amusement parks. However, there’s still much we can learn and collaborate on, whether that involves operational, creative, or even financial aspects.”
“Historically, we’ve sometimes reinvented the wheel in parallel between parks,” adds Fagerström. “But I think we’re becoming much more streamlined now, asking, ‘Why not just utilise the power of being a group and apply solutions across the board?’
“It’s still a process, but we’re increasingly identifying best practices and scaling them. For example, if we examine the organisational structure in one park, we can derive learnings from it and apply them to the others.
“It’s a very tight ship, and with two owner families, who are very present and based here in Stockholm, there’s an active involvement in all parks. That’s something you really get with a family-owned company, and I think there’s a real strength in that.”
Tech at Gröna Lund
When asked what role they see emerging technologies, such as VR, AR and AI, playing in the park in the future, Fagerström says:
“The impact of technology is going to be there whether we like it or not. And there are so many opportunities. It depends on whether we’re talking about operations, communication, or the overall guest experience.”
When it comes to the guest experience side, the goal is for technology not to be the focus. “Especially since we’re not one of the giant players in the industry who can afford to update tech every year. We need to ensure that we create experiences that are not only highly reliable operationally, but also ones that can last for 20, 30, or 40 years.
“We place very high demands on the vendors we work with, and we won’t jump into a tech trend just because it’s trending. It must be sustainable in the long term.”
That said, the park is working on several initiatives. “For example, we do a lot with Halloween, and there we’ve experimented quite a bit with tech. Because those attractions are temporary, we can really iterate. For two years now, we’ve done a haunted house that’s purely audio-based. I haven’t seen it done anywhere else. It’s an entirely new experience, using spatial audio in a way that immerses guests.
“We can use those kinds of projects as great case studies to inform our more long-term developments.”
“It’s also a case of continuously developing the unique experience of Gröna Lund,” says Eriksson. “We don’t want to dive into purely VR-style experiences, because you can already find that in several places in Stockholm. But if we can complement VR with something that creates a unique experience here, then that becomes much more interesting.”
Looking to the future
Two years ago, the park obtained permits to expand into its current parking lot, aligning with the city’s broader goal of making the Djurgården area car-free. This expansion would increase the park’s size by about 20–25%. In the meantime, they’re working on several projects within the existing park boundaries.
Overall, there’s a strong sense of momentum and optimism, with many plans in progress and upcoming announcements.
Reflecting on what he hopes for the park over the coming years, Fagerström says:
“For our company and here in Sweden, we still feel quite a lot the effect of the pandemic. We were basically the only venues in Europe that had to be closed for a full year. And it’s an aftermath that we are still suffering from, both financially and in terms of talent drain, as well as in many other aspects.”
The post-pandemic period has been a time of self-reflection: “We’ve been asking, who are we? What are our strengths, what are the truths about us, our guests, and us as a business? What is our purpose here?’
“The effect of that is that you start planting seeds. That’s why we’re also excited to move forward, because all of that reflection has, in turn, created amazing opportunities and developments that we’ve taken on. It’s been the effect of everything we’ve been through.
“As a company, we say the only way forward is to continue to grow and stay even more true to our purpose. I hope that it’s clearer than ever that we are a necessary part of our guests’ lives and society.”
A clear vision for Gröna Lund
Eriksson adds:
“If we look forward five to ten years, rebuilding the relationship with our guests is key. We need to reconnect with a lost generation—those kids who were around 10 or 11 in 2020 and 2021, who were supposed to create their core memories here. We have to find them again.”
There is a clear vision from the owners that they will never sell the parks. “There’s no ambition to maximise profit in a single year just to move on,” says Fagerström. “That means we are here for the long term.
“We’re essentially the caretakers of this generation; everyone who works here, and everything we do, is guided by a very long-term vision of what Gröna Lund will become.”