Lukas: Sweden’s Raggare subculture

Raggare is a subculture mostly found in Sweden, and involves old American cars, cheap beer, strange music, and often disco lights. The subculture is somewhat controversial, with many Swedes disliking it, referring to the raggare as hillbillies. Before we can get into it, though, we need to go over some background information.

Starting around the 1970s, cars in the United States were largely replaced by newer models, leaving the old ones to be sold cheap, often to Swedish car enthusiasts who would import them. These large cars would largely be found in rural areas, where there was plenty of space to store them. Simultaneously, after World War II, American Rock ‘n Roll culture spread to Sweden. These two phenomena would eventually be combined to form the raggare subculture.

Traditionally, raggare were often guys who would wear rockabilly-inspired outfits with leather jackets, while driving around in these old American cars and going after girls. In fact, it is said that the term raggare originated from the Swedish slang verb “ragga”, meaning to pick up girls. 

Current raggare cars and culture have changed somewhat. A little more background information: EPA tractors are historically a converted and repurposed car used by famers as a cheaper alternative to agricultural tractors. Later, they were often used by young Swedes who weren’t allowed to drive cars yet (the legal age being 18) but were allowed to drive these EPA tractors from age 15 as they had a top speed of 30 km/h. EPA tractors are often found in current raggare culture. Raggare cars often carry a big orange triangle sign on the back, legally indicating that it’s an EPA tractor. The raggare cars are also not always American anymore, and if they are, they frequently are rusty and damaged. And if they’re not, they’re often older Volvo models, altered to hang very low to the ground.

In Örebro you will find groups of raggare during late evenings, especially in parking lots, gas stations, or slowly driving around the city center around the party district. The cars will be filled to the brim with raggare drinking beers and partying with disco lights while listening to “EPA dunk”.

My secret bucket list item of things to do while living in Sweden is to take a ride in one of the “raggarbil”, but I’m not sure whether it’s a wise idea.