Jokkmokk
Winter MarketThe 2027 dates, and how to do it properly

When it is, and why then

By tradition the market begins on the first Thursday in February and runs to Saturday. In 2027 that is Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 February, the 422nd market by the organiser's count. The outdoor market is open from 10:00 to 18:00 on all three days, and walking into it costs nothing. Concerts, talks and some other events charge separately, each through its own seller: there is no single ticket for the week.

The dates are old. The initiative was Karl IX's: a fixed place where the Crown's bailiff could collect tax, trade could be regulated, and the church could gather people who were otherwise spread across a winter's travel. The market counts from 1605; the earliest gathering described in a surviving report was held in Jokkmokk from 11 to 13 February 1606, which is why the municipality sometimes writes 'since 1606'. Early February made sense then for the same reason it does now: the ground is frozen hard enough to cross.

The organiser publishes the full programme in late autumn: its programme page says mid-November, and its homepage says the programme is usually ready in December. Until then, treat any timetable you see for the reindeer caravan, the races or the evening concerts, including older ones on this site, as last year's.

What happens across the week

The market itself is stalls along Storgatan and round the park beside Gamla Apoteket, where the snow stage stands, with the winter activities out on the lake, Talvatissjön, south of the centre. That was the layout on the organiser's 2026 map, and the 2027 one has not been published.

The reindeer caravan, renrajd, has come through the town since the anniversary market of 1955, when the market also took its modern Thursday-to-Saturday shape. In 2026 it passed through the market at 12:00 on the Saturday, and SVT broadcast it. Reindeer racing on the lake ice and a historical market on the old market site, first held in 2005, are part of the week too. Their 2027 days and times have not been announced.

In 2026 the market was opened on the Wednesday evening, at 17:30 at the snow stage. Expect something similar on Wednesday 3 February 2027, and check the programme once it is out.

It is first a working Sámi gathering, and second a thing visitors may attend.

That is the thing to understand before you go. People who see each other once a year see each other; business is done; the reindeer are somebody's livelihood. Our winter market page describes what it is like to walk through it.

Ájtte, and the programme already published

Ájtte, the Swedish Mountain and Sámi Museum, on Kyrkogatan, has put out its own 2027 market-week programme already, and it starts two days before the market. The museum is open from 10:00 to 17:00 from Tuesday 2 to Saturday 6 February, and from 12:00 to 16:00 on Sunday 7 February. Entry is SEK 120 for adults, and children up to 16 come in free with an adult. The talks, films and performances on its programme are included in the ticket, and on the Tuesday and Wednesday the films and talks in its auditorium are free.

Two events are in English: a talk on making archives accessible on Sámi premises, at 10:15 on Wednesday 3 February, and a guided tour of the museum at 15:15 on Friday 5 February, meeting in the Round room. Much of the rest is in Swedish, and one Saturday talk is in Northern Sámi with interpretation into Swedish. There is joik and storytelling at 13:00 on the Friday and the Saturday, coffee and kaffeost round the fire in the museum park from 14:00 to 16:00 Thursday to Saturday, and a reindeer in the park from 15:00 to 16:00 on Friday and Saturday.

Two new exhibitions open on Wednesday 3 February at 16:00: 17 nejpieh 17 ærpieh, seventeen knives by seventeen Sámi makers shown with seventeen from the museum's collections, part of Luleåbiennalen 2027, and a showing of offerings returned from Unna Sájvva. Go to Ájtte first. An hour there makes everything outside more legible.

Buying duodji, and knowing what you are buying

Duodji is Sámi handicraft: knives with antler and birch-burl handles, engraved antler sheaths, birch cups, silver, woven bands, leather. A great deal of it is sold at the market, and a great deal of what looks like it is not.

The Sámi Duodji mark is the one to look for. It certifies traditional handicraft made by a Sámi maker, to criteria on materials, technique and design, and in Sweden it is licensed through Sámi Duodji, the Sámi handicraft foundation. A second mark, Sámi Made, is different: it covers products from Sámi-owned businesses more broadly, and it does not by itself mean an object is traditional handwork. Without either, the simplest test is still the best one: ask the person behind the table who made it.

We have not found a reliable price guide, so we are not giving one. A good knife takes a maker many hours, and is priced like it. If you would rather make something than buy it, our duodji workshop is a morning with a maker.

Getting there

Jokkmokk has no airport of its own. The organiser points to Luleå, Gällivare and Arvidsjaur. Luleå is the usual choice: about 75 minutes from Stockholm Arlanda, then roughly 170 kilometres and two and a half hours by road. Gällivare is closer, but the flights from Arlanda take two hours to two hours and 45 minutes, some with a stop on the way, and there are fewer of them.

By rail, take the night train north and change to the bus. From December 2026 SJ runs the northern night trains, with sleeping cars through to Narvik and no change at Boden. Murjek is the station the organiser recommends for Jokkmokk: bus 43 runs from there to the town, and bus 44 links Gällivare, Jokkmokk and Luleå. Check the connection for your exact dates in Länstrafiken i Norrbotten's planner once the new timetables are out, because a route existing is not the same as it meeting your train. During market week, buses are diverted round the closed streets and stop only at the bus station, from Wednesday to Sunday.

Without a bed in Jokkmokk, there is a day bus from Luleå on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 February 2027, sold by Luleå Travel at SEK 690. It leaves the Quality Hotel on Storgatan at 07:30, arrives about 10:00, and leaves Jokkmokk at 17:00. That is a long day for seven hours of market, but it works.

Driving

If you hire a car, it will have winter tyres, because the law requires them: from 1 December to 31 March they are compulsory whenever there are winter road conditions, which in Jokkmokk in February is always. Road 97 from Luleå and the E45 are the main roads in, but the light is short and the weather can close in. Check Trafikverket's road information on the morning you drive.

Market parking is at the industrial area by the entrance from road 97, with signs on the way in and attendants on the day. There is a charge, and it goes to a local association. There is no engine-heater hire at the market car parks, so ask your hire company about starting the car after a night at minus 25. A few disabled parking places are kept in the centre; Infocenter tells you where at the start of market week.

Where to sleep

This is the hard part. The town's hotels are Hotel Jokkmokk, Hotel Åkerlund and the STF hostel at Åsgård, with cabins at Arctic Camp Jokkmokk and Skabram. For the rest of the week the town takes in its visitors itself: people let rooms, flats and whole houses, and the ski club runs mattress accommodation at Östraskolan, with a school café for breakfast. There is no central booking office, so every bed is found one at a time. The organiser simply says to book early, and that is the advice we would give too.

One warning from the organiser itself: do not pay a private landlord in advance until you have checked that the room, the person and the address are real.

If Jokkmokk is full, look a little further out. Vuollerim, on road 97 towards Luleå, has a year-round hotel, and Porjus, to the north-west, has apartments by the old station. Gällivare has hotels and an airport. Luleå is two and a half hours away, and Luleå Travel sells a four-night stay there from 3 to 7 February 2027 from SEK 9,900 a person sharing. Kvikkjokk is beautiful and 120 kilometres up a dead-end road, which is too far to come and go each day.

The cold

SMHI's normals for Jokkmokk put the February average at minus 13, with nights averaging minus 18.5 and days minus 7.3. Those are averages. At the 2012 market it reached minus 40, and in other years it has been above freezing. Check the forecast the week before, and pack for the bottom of the range.

The market asks you to stand still for hours, which is what the cold charges for. Layers that are loose rather than tight, nothing cotton against the skin, a windproof shell, a hat over the ears, and spare socks and mittens in the bag, as 1177, the national health service, advises. Go indoors before you are cold rather than after. White, numb skin on the cheeks or fingers is the sign to stop, and it should be warmed, not rubbed. Children and older people feel it first.

Manners

Use 'Sámi'. The old word 'Lapp' is regarded as negative and should not be used for a person. The Sámi name of the town is Jåhkåmåhkke, and Ájtte also uses Dálvvadis.

Gákti, the Sámi dress, is not a costume worn for visitors, and the people wearing it are not part of the scenery. Ask before you photograph a person rather than the street, take no for an answer, and ask a parent before photographing a child. The reindeer are working animals and someone's living: do not touch, feed or frighten one without asking whoever is holding the rope.

Saturday 6 February is also Sámi National Day, which commemorates the first Sámi national congress, in Trondheim in 1917. It was first celebrated as a national day in 1993, in Jokkmokk.

Beyond the market

Give a day to the country round the town. The Laponian Area, a World Heritage Site since 1996, is four national parks and two nature reserves and a living reindeer-herding landscape. Its visitor centre at Naturum Laponia is a summer building, open from April to September in 2026, so in February you see Laponia from the road and on a guided day rather than from the visitor centre.

Silba Siida, owned by a Sámi couple who herd reindeer, holds reindeer experiences through the winter, meeting at the Arctic Circle on road 97: in its 2026–27 season, a three-hour visit with Sámi food at 11:00 for SEK 2,200 a person, or a one-hour visit with coffee and bread at 14:30 for SEK 990. Book them direct. Dog sledding, an evening in a lávvu or Sámi food over a fire are the others we would suggest round the market.

Then go further north. Jokkmokk pairs well with a few nights at Abisko for the dark skies, or the Treehotel at Harads, on road 97 on the way to or from Luleå. Our northern lights guide explains where in Lapland the sky is most often clear.