Stora Tullhuset is the venue for this year’s Fringe The Opening – a building steeped in stories of departure, hope and change. Many of the people who left Sweden during the great emigration to America between 1821 and 1930 passed through here. Via the Port of Gothenburg, hundreds of thousands of Swedes set off for a new life on the other side of the Atlantic, many of them poor, rootless or desperate, but also filled with a longing for freedom and new opportunities. A chance to create something new. Just as the emigrants once left the familiar for something uncertain but possible, the festival invites both audiences and artists to move towards new experiences, new encounters and new ways of seeing the world. We see the diversity of performing arts and people as something unique and valuable within the Fringe, and we would love for more people to experience it. Stora Tullhuset thus becomes more than just a historic building; it becomes a symbolic departure point for imagination, change and the courage to step into the as yet unknown.