The history of Returkultur

Returkultur was founded in 2018 and was sprung from a long cooperation between the non-profit festivals Skogsfesten in Dalsland and Algotfestivalen in Bohuslän. The festivals had over the year collected a lot of resources that they would share with each other and at the same time created a network for collecting and reusing resources that you want to have when arranging a festival. It could be everything from food to building materials to stage equipment. From here the idea of Returkultur was born. To share things and collect useful thingamagoops has to be possible here and there in the culture scene, right? The first step was to research how this could be done. How can we collect resources? And from where? And how can culture producers share their things?

We aimed at collecting from larger institutions because we heard that they’d want to donate stuff, but doesn’t really know where to turn. In addition to this it would also be great if their resources, which are often funded by tax money, can be of use to other culture producers when no longer needed by the institutions. After a while different companies and institutions started contacting us to donate. We collected as best we could and put in shelves and in piles. With students at Chalmers we investigated how sharing could work in the culture sector. Which obstacles exist and which possibilities.

Since then we’ve continued to collect things that can now be individually reserved and checked out by our members through our digital platform. We’ve researched what laws we have to confine within, continued to expand our network, built a self-help warehouse from scratch and much much more.