Music venues & clubs – All our local tips

There are not that many places in Stockholm where you feel just as comfortable taking a glass of wine as a cup of coffee. Most places it is either way. Of course you can have a coffee at most places that serve wine, not so much the other way around. Café Tabac is one of the exceptions.

Located in Gamla Stan near Kornhamnstorg it has a great (?) view over Slussen (maybe one of the ugliest places in Stockholm). This is the place you go to for a drink or coffee after work on a weekday. Or maybe a meal with friends.

It’s divided in a café area and a restaurant area. You can have hot meals in the café too, but I would recommend the bruschetta with tomatoes and prawns. Delicious. They also have cakes and cookies if that’s more what you want with your coffee. Or wine or bear.

The food in the restaurant is fairly price worthy. I prefer the pasta before the tapas though. Not that the tapas aren’t good, but they are very small and for that quite expensive.

It can be quite crowded, so if you come on a weekend you might want to make a reservation. But most of the times you would get a table and that’s what so good about this place. You can actually be spontaneous and just drop by.

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Café Tabac | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Restaurants (Spanish) | Glass of wine SEK 45.00
Stora Nygatan 46 | Gamla Stan
Mon – Thu 10:00 – 00:00, Fri – Sat 10:00 – 01:00, Sun 12:00 – 00:00

Stockholm’s House of Dance is the place if you enjoy contemporary art forms and want to see something live. You can enjoy it (or hate it) without knowing a word of Swedish.

Dansens Hus has a bunch of interesting performances every season; at least 35 every year. The program for autumn is packed with interesting performances, check it out! Dorte Olesen and Cullbergbaletten should not be missed!

I guess I really started going to Dansens Hus after seeing Virpi Pahkinen dancing for free at Parkteatern a couple of years ago. She totally blew me away. I looked her up and discovered that she usually presented her work at Dansens Hus. I’ve been going there regularly since then.

Other performances at Dansens Hus that I’ve really enjoyed are by Dorte Olesen, Cullbergbaletten; and DV8. DV8 was truly outstanding last year, got standing ovations and left the audience clapping for 10 minutes.

Dansens Hus was founded in 1991 and has two stages, the prices are low; especially if you’re a student or below 26. They also arrange lectures, workshops and show movies; often for free.

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Dansens Hus | Art & culture, Music, Theaters | Entrance student SEK 130.00
Barnhusgatan 14 | City/Norrmalm | +46850899090
Mon – Fri 14:00 – 18:00, Sat 14:00 – 19:00 (only in conjunction with performances)

This is one of my favourite places to dance for sure! They have many different clubs and they’re usually for free if you come before 22:00. They also have lots of concerts, check their homepage for dates!

One night that was particularly wonderful was during Debaser Medis “Berlin night” where one of my favourite artists Apparat performed. It was an excellent night, packed with different electronic music which made us dance for at least 6 hours.

The first floor has two rooms. The larger room gives me a feeling of prom-night or something. The ceiling is really high, the stage is large and the floor spacious. There’s lots of room to dance, though it does get pretty packed during the night. Losing your friends in the crowd is not unusual, which is okay, you always find someone else to chat or dance with.

The smaller room is more chilled out with a bar, seats and you can order food. They also have a nice bar and a small cinema on the second floor.

Bring earplugs!

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Debaser Medis | Bars, Cinemas, Music, Snacks | Entrance SEK 100.00
Medborgarplatsen 8 | Södermalm | +4686947900
Fri – Sat 17:00 – 03:00 (concerts 19:00) | Check their website

Saturday night is Soul night!

The atmosphere at Fasching’s Club Soul stands out from most clubs in Stockholm. It’s like going back in time entering a beautiful old theatre where the floor is smacked with dancing people. Yeah, people dance like crazy here.

People are not here to get drunk or to flirt (okay maybe some, but it’s not as obvious as at other places), they’re all here to dance their shoes off and that’s very liberating.

Fasching has different clubs but is mainly known for their Jazz concerts. So if you’re into Jazz, this is certainly your spot!

If you’re into Hiphop you should check out their club Spiderdogs, said to be Stockholm’s best hiphop club right now! Spiderdogs is on once every month, check their website for dates. Some crazy dancing as well!

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Fasching’s Club Soul | Bars, Music | Entrance & wardrobe SEK 120.00
Kungsgatan 63 | City/Norrmalm | +4670783049
Sat 23:30 – 04:00

Until recently this place was called Street and although changes have been made, the crowd is similar. Street was part of the new “Hornstull” with a weekend street market, fancy but cool restaurant and bar/club in the big garage looking local. Strand has taken over and reformed both the restaurant and the club, but sadly there is no market.

On the other hand they have worked a lot to make the club a great one. There are constantly cool things going on, like interesting bands and well known DJ:s. For the ones who have been to the club Ugglan over on the other side of Södermalm it comes as no surprise that it’s the same people who are behind Strand.

The Ugglan concept with boule courts in the basement and completely new bands playing in the tiniest of rooms is present, but since Strand is a much bigger place they can welcome bigger artists, both on stage and in the DJ-booth. For example internationally well known Peter, Bjorn And John had their release party here. More regular things is that P3, the young radio channel with all the new music, have their monthly bar here. And a thing called Cinemat, which is movie and soup is also here every month. Check the calendar (only in Swedish) for exact dates.

Strand still feels like a living room away from home with many sofas spread about and pingpong tables hidden in alcoves. You can’t help to feel relaxed.

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Hornstull Strand Etabl | Bars, Music, Restaurants (Crossover) | Entrance club SEK 60.00
Hornstulls Strand 4 | Södermalm | +4686586350
Tue 17:00 – 00:00, Wed – Fri 17:00 – 02:00, Sat 11:00 – 02:00, Sun 16:00 – 22:00

Götgatsbacken – the hill of Götgatan between Slussen and Medborgarplatsen – is one of the busiest bar areas in Stockholm and any Friday or Saturday evening you have tons of people slipping in and out of bars, smoking on the footpath outside or just passing on there way for some more fun.

Out of all the places here Indigo is the most stylish with the coolest people. It is very tiny so you have to be here early if you want to sit, but this is not the kind of bar where I spend the whole evening. I go here for one or two drinks in between other places.The colourful and very unusual design and decoration works as an energy injection and so does the music – always new cool beats of indie, rock and electro. The only downside is that the music tend to be loud so it can be tricky to have any serious conversations for any amount of time.

And as for the cool people – yes, some “cred” celebrities can be spotted at times, last time I was there so was Pelle from the Hives and Moneybrother. If you like their type of music, this is also the place for you.

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Indigo Bar | Bars, Music | Draft beer SEK 44.00
Götgatan 19 | Södermalm | +4686435859
Mon – Fri 17:00 – 01:00, Sat 15:00 – 01:00

You feel like doing something, seeing something, feel a bit cultural? Kulturhuset is the place to get inspired or just to wander around. There’s always something going on for everyone!

This place really makes me happy, the exhibitions are cheap or for free and they always have interesting activities going on. They have several exhibitions, theatres, a cinema, cafés, music performances, an impressive library with lots of art-books and newspapers from all over the world, an unique library for comics, a large imaginative place for children, a creative place for teenagers called LAVA, they arrange meetings with writers and much more…

This is a big bubbling place that wants everyone to get inspired, to think for themselves and to share their big and small thoughts with each other; or just to sit down, play some chess and drink coffee.

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Kulturhuset | Art & culture, Cinemas, Coffee & tea, Music, Theaters
Sergels torg | City/Norrmalm | +46850831508
check the website for opening times

The building that now hosts landet, used to be a post office. Even though people go there nowadays to grab a mushroom soup with pesto or a beer instead of a package, the concept is pretty much the same. And it’s not only the students from konstfack and people living and working in the area that come here. Landet manages to have followers from all over town, something that not many places in the Stockholm surroundings can brag about.

This spot is mainly divided in a restaurant and a bar, and both of them are extremely popular. In the restaurant, one can get excellent crossover food with clear Swedish influences and the personnel working here is both professional as well as very kind.

In the club arena there’s a lot going on. From Wednesday to Saturday there are many fun live concerts and DJ gigs that probably make Landet the best place outside town for a night out…and one of the best in Stockholm too!

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Landet | Bars, Music, Restaurants (Crossover) | Lunch SEK 95.00
LM Ericssons väg 27 | Outside South/East | +46841019320
Mon – Thu 11:00 – 13:30 & 17:00 – 00:00, Fri 11:00 – 13:30 & 16:00 – 01:00, Sat 17:00 – 01:00

Stockholm is supposed to be a trendy city. People in this city are supposed to be very aware of what is trendy. But sometimes we let our hair out and forget all about trends. That’s when we go to Lemon Bar.

Lemon Bar is small, crowded, sweaty and the music is not the best of the newest club music. But that’s why it’s so much fun. I would think that this is one of the happiest bars in town. There is no room for snobs and pretentious people here. Just happy and dancing people.

There is a bar and a dance floor in the basement too so people don’t have to dance on the tables any more. Like they did a couple of years ago. But everybody is still very happy.

So, what’s the deal with the music? There are a lot of Eurovision song contest-music, old Bon Jovi-songs and some Bryan Adams. You get the picture. But everybody sings a long and pretend (or not) that they love it. Even me. There is no room for being a music snob here. Which is great fun at some occasions.

If this is not what you are looking for, but you are in the area, you can always turn to Lokal. A nice, more “mature” bar next door.

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Lemon Bar | Bars, Music | Beer SEK 50.00
Scheelegatan 8 | Kungsholmen | +4686501778
Mon – Wed 17:00 – 01:00, Thu – Sat 17:00 – 03:00

Going to concerts isn’t usually cheap in Stockholm! In fact, most of the times one must even decide well in advance! Well, that was until I found the Royal College of Music in Stockholm a couple of years ago.

The students from this college are among the best music students in the country. They have been practicing for many years and holding a concert is nothing new for them. In short, they are good! Concerts are held frequently and even last year examination concerts are opened for public.

I typically enjoy going to the small jazzy ones on Tuesdays in lilla salen, but check out also for the folk and classical music concerts. I always have a great time there… and it’s free!

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Musikhögskolan | Music | Free
Valhallavägen 105 | Östermalm | +468161800
View calendar

Nada is one of many small bars in this neighbourhood but it might be the one with the best party vibe. Outside there is a sign saying BAR and a beautifully vaulted window. You see straight into the main area with the bar to the left, the DJ booth in the middle and the rest of the space crushed with people.

A small passageway leads into the next room called Göteborg (Swedens second biggest city). It’s equally packed here but there are a few more seats and tables. If you are here early and lucky enough to get a table you can have nice tapas with your beers.

The music has a lot to do with the mood of the place and Nada gets really good DJ’s even though they are still only paid with beer and food. They have “Live-Sundays” with live bands which gets a nice crowd. Other types of music that get played here is indie, electro and German madness.

The food is good but you come here more for a snack with drinks than a quiet meal. On the upside of the drinks is that you can get a glass of tasty cava for SEK 55, something quite rare in Stockholm. On the downside is that the draft beer doesn’t always taste so great – stick to the bottles.

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Nada Bar | Bars, Music | Bottle beer SEK 45.00
Åsögatan 140 | Södermalm | +4686429020
17:00 – 01:00 daily

It is no surprise that Pet Sounds Bar is such a success among the indie crowd of Södermalm. The fairytale started with the record shop Pet Sounds on Skånegatan 53, an institution for music lovers in the times when everybody still bought their sounds in the shops instead of using Internet. Pet Sounds was (and still is) the place to come and just browse for the latest indie band or the odd copy of the classics. And you could always get great tips from the staff.

So when Pet Sounds decided to open a bar they already had a given crowd – and that crowd quickly turned out to be too big for the place, on Skånegatan 90, that they had chosen. It was not many months however before they found the perfect location. Not only is it just opposite the record shop but it was here that all the indie kids of the 90’s had their beer and music fix on what was then called Hannas.

The crowd now is a mix of new enthusiasts and the 10 year older regulars of Hannas. Upstairs is a bit more grownup, here you hang in the bar or eat at one of the restaurant tables. Downstairs is all about music. There is a small bar, a tiny stage and a DJ booth where everything and anything is played – as long as it’s good! The basement is also the place for book releases, private parties and other events. The Stockholm Spotted by Locals release party was held here in December 2008!

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Pet Sounds Bar | Bars, Music | Wine SEK 68.00
Skånegatan 80 | Södermalm | +4686438225
Tue 17:00 – 00:00, Wed – Sat 17:00 – 01:00, Sun 12:00 – 00:00

I really do like this place. Mostly visiting the bar during the weekdays I had forgotten how crowded it gets during weekends. Crowded in a good way. When a place is this small it can get quite claustrophobic with a lot of people, but Snottys seems to manage that perfectly.

Located on Skånegatan, near Nytorget, it really is the kind bar you just pop in to if you’re in the neighbourhood. It is definitely the kind of bar I just slip down to in the middle of the week for a couple of drinks with my friends in the neighbourhood.

But the small and friendly atmosphere is not all to this place. The music here is so good too. They sometimes have their own dj in the bar and have decorated the walls with old album-covers, posters and magazine articles. So the music is serious business for these people.

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Snotty Sounds Bar | Bars, Music | Beer SEK 45.00
Skånegatan 90 | Södermalm
16:00 – 01:00 daily

I don’t know what happened but my favourite café isn’t my favourite anymore. I still come here and enjoy the furnishing and cosy atmosphere but the sandwiches aren’t like they once used to be.. It’s still cheap though and definitely worth going to, it hasn’t lost it charm.

The atmosphere is warm, relaxed and creative. It was really hip a couple of years ago but people keep coming. Downstairs you find more seats and if it’s nice weather they have a couple of attractive tables outside.

It’s been serving us cheap sandwiches since 1992. Every sandwich comes with a tasty little salad as well. Their Soya-latte is one of the best in town and their carrot cake is excellent. They have music and theatre performances downstairs every Wednesday and the art hanging on the walls is for sale.

Oh, if you like the chair you’re sitting on you can buy it as well, all furniture is for sale.

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String | Art & culture, Coffee & tea, Music, Shopping, Snacks | Sandwich SEK 35.00
Nytorgsgatan 38 | Södermalm | +4687148514
Mon – Fri 09:30 – 21:00, Sat – Sun 10:30 – 19:00

Svart Kaffe was favorite spots for a coffee ever since they started in 1996, but for years it was so tiny that it was hard to get a seat. But lovers of club music still came to hear some cool tunes.

Since the Hello Kitty shop next door got smaller there is now more space for in-house eating. But during summer nobody cares anyway. Svart Kaffes location close to the little square Nytorget means that, when it’s warm, most people come here for a take away. It’s the perfect spot to hang and look at typical Södermalm people – and you will notice more than one with the Svart Kaffe paperbags with the famous “afro dancer”.

Svart Kaffe were no fools and started selling the very popular picnic bags – a coffee of your choice, any sandwich and a pago juice for 70-80 kr. And there are many delicious sandwiches to choose from, over 20 items from SEK 35 to SEK 65 and you can always pick between big and small, with or without meat, heated or cold and with dark or light bread – so be prepared to answer all those questions before you order.

Some of my personal favorites are “salmon with chives cream cheese, tomato and lemon spring onion” and “halloumi with pesto, olives, tomato and red onion”.

The customers have changed from only clubbers to more regular Södermalm people. The free wifi explains the more than occasional laptop you can spot on the tables.

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Svart Kaffe | Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks | Caffe latte SEK 28.00
Södermannagatan 23 | Södermalm | +4684629500
Mon – Thu 08:00 – 20:00, Fri 08:00 – 19:00, Sat – Sun 10:00 – 19:00

Fancy a drink with a vampire? This is one of the coolest bars in Stockholm, for sure! Pass the door, go down the stairs and enter a very different atmosphere set in a cave.

The drinks really make this place, most of them have vampire-names and are delicious as hell! You have to try a Milkshake drink, they’re like candy. My favourite is Vlad the Impaler and yeah, Monday is the day to come here since it’s much cheaper. There’s a new DJ playing records every night and if you’re not into alcohol it’s alright, all drinks can be ordered alcohol-free!

Sit down on a comfy, red sofa with your drink, red wine or beer and enjoy the atmosphere with candle lights and interesting ornaments. The toilet is also quite interesting…

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Vampire Lounge | Bars, Music, Snacks | Drink SEK 58.00
Östgötagatan 41 | Södermalm | +4686432240
Mon – Fri 17:00 – 01:00, Sat 19:00 – 01:00