Celebrate the end of summer with a boozy Swedish crayfish party

Tobias Tuleby

Those Swedes sure know how to make the most of summer. Not content with going wild for midsummer, they also throw one of the booziest late summer shindigs around: the crayfish party. For the uninitiated, here’s the dealio. To celebrate the crayfish harvesting season, Swedes put on an alfresco bash sometime around August-September with mountains of crustaceans, silly hats and bibs, cray-zy songs and reckless amounts of snaps.

The good news is, you don’t have to go all the way to Scandinavia to join in. This Saturday, Dalston’s 40FT Brewery is throwing a kräftskiva where £12 gets you carby treats from the Dusty Knuckle Bakery, local crays caught by Crayfish Bob and specially distilled schnapps by East London Liquor Company (though that last bit costs extra).

If you want to splash out, LondonSwedes (pictured above) is throwing a series of big parties over September 1-4 on a rooftop in Fulham where it costs £40 for buckets of crayfish, a classic Swedish buffet, schnapps and good times aplenty.

Alternatively, now that you’re an expert, you could just pop to Scandinavian Kitchen, stock up on goodies and throw your own party. Skål!

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