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No. 9
Friday March 5, 2010
The Arjeplog Times
Your weekly paper with news, views & interviews. Since 90/91. 19th season
Events - Profitable Spin-off from Car Testing The ‘Events’ business is an offshoot of the car testing industry that is now growing very fast in Arjeplog. Many people around the world are finding adventure and excitement in the icy cold winter of Arjeplog and they are prepared to pay a lot of money for it.
Driving cars on ice, snow-mobiling, dog sledding and other adventurous activities are bringing hundreds of people to this area. Some people think that the events business might grow to be as big or bigger than car testing. There is also a possibility that events are going to prolong the winter season. The events business has two starting points. First of all, Gunnar Fjellström and Dieter Röscheisen from Porsche organized safety driving events in 1993. In later years they arranged several Monika Ekerhag from Hemavan is in charge of her 55 dogs that are used for the various events here. similar events. They hired local Saami people and famous rally drivers to give special colour to their events. Gunnar Fjellström says that in those days the car testing companies were not so keen on the events. He does not really know why, but thinks that maybe they wanted to keep Arjeplog to themselves. The second starting point was in 2002 when Jan Edvardsson, owner of Silverhatten, attended a fair in Germany and managed to convince AMG/ IWC (watches) to do their launch in Arjeplog. The event brought journalists from the whole world and was such a success that AMG now hold all their winter events in Arjeplog. They rent the Silver Lodge (called ‘AMG-Lodge’ during the winter) and bring lots of guests throughout the season. Audi have their own garage and lodge at Silverhatten and BMW have their own event facilities at Kraja. Other companies have also inquired about coming to Gunnar Fjellström, standing, was one of the first to arrange events in Arjeplog. Here with participants at an event in 1994. On the right, Margit Blind. Arjeplog for their event next year. continued on page 6 Inside: Heinrich Huchtkoetter, GKN-Driveline on the Hot Seat; Local Marlene Fjellström; Useful info; What’s on?