Last year was like every other year before it in the sense that we got some good and some bad. No matter in which light you view 2025, during this time of year winter feels like it’s going to last forever. With both Christmas and New Years behind us it’s easy to feel as if we will never see brighter days. However, don’t lose hope too soon! There are actually a bunch of things happening in 2026 that are worth looking forward to and keeping tabs on.    

Winter Olympics – February 6-22

The first thing I am really looking forward to are the Winter Olympics. This year Italy is hosting, and the games are set to take place across Lombardy and other parts of northeastern Italy with Milan and Cortina D’ampezzo being the two main locations.

The Swedish medal hopes are high ahead of the games. During the Beijing 2022 Olympics, the Swedish women’s cross-country team won every gold, and in total Sweden won eight golds and a total of 18 medals. Our best result of all time! Others who contributed to this were Sare Hector in giant slalom and, of course, Nils van Der Poel. Although hopes are high for Sweden, they could have been higher with a change of venue that would have given us home court advantage. This almost happened as Stockholm-Åre was the other location considered for this year’s Olympics. 

Nådiga Lundtan Goes To Print – End of February
It would feel weird to make a list of 2026 highlights without mentioning that for the next edition Nådiga Lundtan will be releasing its first physical issue of a newspaper in 9 years. Keep a look out around EC for that! 

Valborg – April 30
It would also be weird of me to make this list and not at least mention Valborg. It may be a yearly happening but it is worth looking forward to nonetheless. Most of you may be familiar with the schedule of Skvalborg, Kvalborg, Valborg followed by Finalborg and maybe even Katastrofalborg for those who feel daring. It truly is an epic experience. For those of you who have not yet experienced your first Valborg in Lund the recipe for success is basically: Do your best to get tickets to different activities, get enough sleep, be early to stadsparken and enjoy! 

Karnevalen – May 22-24
If we are talking about things happening in Lund during this coming year, Valborg almost takes a back seat as Karnevalen is set to arrive in town. It’s a tradition that is dated as far back as 1849 and it has gone from being a sort of “spring festival” in connection with Valborg to being its very own thing. It used to operate on a more loose schedule but after some time it was thought best for Lund to get a 2 year break between every carnival. This lasted until 1894 when the 4 year break was adopted. Never having experienced a Lundakarneval myself, I feel a bit unsure about what to expect but from what I have heard it is sure to be something to look forward to. 

The 2026 Men’s FIFA World Cup – June 11-July 19 

During summer we will also get to enjoy the FIFA men’s world cup with the 2026 edition being the combined effort of Canada, Mexico and the US. Generally large sporting events are fun but for many this is based on how your team performs. For Sweden even qualifying has seemed like a difficult task. Switzerland ran away in the group stage while we ended up at the bottom. Coaching changes have also added to the uneasiness, going from Janne Andersson to Jon Dahl Tomasson and now to Graham Potter who is on a short term mission to salvage an entire nation’s hopes of qualification. 

Should Sweden fail to qualify I guess we’ll have to wait until 2027 for the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the outlook for this event may be brighter. After all, the women’s team have been the ones to deliver as far as Swedish football goes lately. 

AI act – August 2

During the end of summer break the much spoken about AI Act will further come into effect. Some rules already apply and have done so since February of last year but the most significant parts are being rolled out during this year with some additions being made at a later date. In practice this means that organizations using or developing AI will face new requirements around risk assessment, transparency, and oversight, with stricter rules applying to high-risk systems. 

The Swedish Election – September 13

Of course we also have the Swedish election coming up this year and the debates have been going on for some time. It has been entertaining to say the least, but maybe not in the right way. 

A lot of the early debate has revolved around crime and integration but also about who is going to be “on your team”. The race is between left and right and a lot of my focus is on the smallest party in the room: The Liberals led by Simona Mohamsson. They have polled as low as 2,2 percent and it would be a rare occurrence should they fail to make it to 4 percent come election day. The last time a party “fell out” of the Swedish Riksdag was in 1994 when the party New Democracy exited the riksdag after a short 4 year stint. Other than that, there seems to be left winds blowing throughout Sweden as the polling generally shows the left block doing a bit better. At the end of the day,  it is a close race with no clear way for any one side to form a coalition.

GTA 6 – November 19

Now finishing off with something completely separate from Swedish politics. 2026 is said to be the year when the long wait for the video game GTA- or Grand Theft Auto 6 is over. Developed by Rockstar Games the newest entry into the GTA series has been delayed multiple times going from 2025 to Fall 2025 to May 2026 and now to the 19th of November this year.

Just the year-long wait has become a cultural happening. Many of you have probably encountered the meme format: “We really got X before GTA 6”.