When the World Championship was held in Falun in 2015, the Vasaloppet management decided to move the event one week forward. A historic decision since Vasaloppet usually takes place on the first Sunday in March.
The main reason was to secure community functions such as traffic, healthcare, and accommodation capacity for the approximately 50,000 participants with relatives attending Vasaloppet's winter week and around 200,000 visitors to the World Championship in Falun.
The conditions are the same for 2027. Yet, Vasaloppet has decided to run the winter week, with Vasaloppet as the finale, simultaneously with the World Championship in Falun.
When we evaluated 2015, it showed that everything worked very well. Now we have more experience, as do the World Championship organizers who are arranging a new World Championship in the near future. Moreover, we have a good dialogue with the authorities. Therefore, we see that it is possible to run the arrangements simultaneously. We would like to take the chance to showcase Dalarna and cross-country skiing together with the World Championship in Falun, says Johan Eriksson, CEO of Vasaloppet.
Jonas Peterson, responsible for the World Championship in Falun, sees both challenges and opportunities with the ski clash.
There are challenges with logistics, parking, and the public interested in both the World Championship and Vasaloppet. But we will combine the best of the arrangements to create positive synergy effects for both events and for the visitors, he says.
