Life in Skaraborg Stories Creating their dream...

Creating their dream at the End of the Road

Just over eight years ago, Matilda Maroti and Joakim Malmborg sat in their apartment in Gothenburg scrolling through Hemnet, a real estate website. Longing to escape the city, they were looking for a farm with a lot of potential.

“We had no connection with Vara or Skaraborg, but when we first saw the farm we just knew it was where we wanted to live!
Today, the couple and their two children have grown attached to the farm outside Larv in Vara municipality, and moving away is right out of the question. Instead, they plan to continue making changes and extensions, and developing the farm.

What began with the pair organizing a couple of minor music festivals has developed into a business big enough to keep them both busy on a part-time basis. Their determination to develop the place they fell in love with means they now hold concerts, exhibitions and workshops and rent out their premises for private events like weddings and birthday parties. There’s also a house for rent on the farm and new accommodation is under construction, scheduled for completion in the summer of 2024.

“We dreamed of running different companies here right from the beginning, and now our dream is reality. We want to offer a glorious creative mix, making sure a visit here is a great overall experience for every one of the senses,” says Matilda.

We dreamed of running different companies here right from the beginning, and now our dream is reality. We want to offer a glorious creative mix, making sure a visit here is a great overall experience for every one of the senses

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Food – part of the overall experience

While Joakim is a musician, he is also a trained chef, and at Vägs Ände (the End of the Road) you can taste the food he cooks in the outdoor kitchen. Preferably over an open fire. Because it’s important for Joakim that the ingredients are local, the menu reflects the seasons. Since the aim is to create a holistic experience, the menu varies depending on the type of event it’s paired with.

“It’s rustic with flair! I take the liberty to experiment, and there’s never a set menu in advance. We naturally take allergies into account and there are always vegan options, but our guests will appreciate the food as part of the experience – they just have to trust the chef,” says Joakim.

Concerts with great variety

The summer of 2024 will offer around five major concert evenings. Because the venue where guests enjoy the music in comfortable, recycled cinema seating, only accommodates 100 people, every occasion is intimate and unique. Just the way Matilda and Joakim like it. There’s also quite a range of guest artists.

Because each occasion the couple arrange is so different from the next, they rarely know for sure the type of audience they will attract. But that’s also part of the charm.

“The types of people who come differ greatly and their ages vary a lot; there’s usually a mixture of everything from families with children to seniors. For us, it’s important that we also appeal to children. While there’s a lot of children’s culture there to enjoy, I feel that children don’t get invited to take part in what we class as adult culture quite so often. We aim to change that,” says Matilda.

For us, it’s important that we also appeal to children. While there’s a lot of children’s culture there to enjoy, I feel that children don’t get invited to take part in what we class as adult culture quite so often. We aim to change that!

Matilda and Joakim are currently building an activity park behind one of the buildings to allow children and adults alike to get some exercise during their visits to the farm. And they have a great many ideas for the future.

“We moved here because we had so many ideas we wanted to realize. I don’t think we’ll ever be finished, we’ll probably be building and developing here for as long as we live,” laughs Matilda.