Valborg Spirit(s)
Valborg is simply Walpurgis Night, or describing it in the Uppsala-way, useless drinking in the park. Swedish news website "The Local" already wrote that "if you want the wild, student version then make the pilgrimage to Uppsala or Lund, the two biggest university towns in Sweden".
The "wild student version" was actually not wild at all. Throughout the day nearly all students of Uppsala gathered in the city's various parks, which were protected by a huge number of police agents (the parks, I mean). It was just crowded, but in contrast to Maastricht, the crowd was again amazingly silent. They were just drinking loads of alcohol and did nothing else. No dancing, the only music that could be heard came from battery-powered portable radios, a.k.a. ghetto blasters.
The only entertainment was a boat race in the morning, otherwise there was no stage or something else. A speech held in front of the main library could not be heard, due to the lack of a decent PA system. The whole event was actually accomodated by most of the people as yet another reason to drink excessive amounts of alcohol. This alcohol bought for high prices in the state-controlled "Systembolaget" was then carried to the city in backpacks and even trolleys. At 10 o'clock in the morning I could see the first people vomitting.
The many student associations, called "nations", were all "sold-out", in my opinion a bit on purpose. In the afternoon, for instance, Värmlands and Stockholms nations had outdoor parties and seemed to have engaged in a competition which nation had put up more security fences. Both nations were crowded, but there was still plenty of space. However, they didn't let people in anymore. That wasn't too bad, though, because the Värmlands DJ had the idea to play "YMCA" from Village People.
Throughout the day, everyone seemed to be totally drunk. The city was literally full of people unable to walk anymore. The Swedish state must have earned a lot of extra tax income from the masses of alcohol consumed. The biggest gathering of non-drunk people took place in the evening at the castle: a choir sang for half an hour and the whole performance was broadcasted live on Swedish radio. Here also "normal" people attended the concert, which was really nice. I even understood half of the speeches they had held in Swedish.