Kubb: The Viking Lawn Game With a World Championship on Gotland

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

On the Swedish island of Gotland every August, hundreds of teams gather on mown grass to throw wooden sticks at other wooden sticks, and the last team standing is crowned world champion of kubb. It is the calmest, sunniest, most beer-friendly world championship I know, and I have made the trip across the Baltic to see it with my own eyes.

Kubb — pronounced roughly “koob” — is a Nordic lawn game, and the World Championship, the Kubb VM, has been held since 1995 in the village of Rone on Gotland’s southern half. That first year drew 28 teams, most of them local Gotlanders. It has grown into a genuinely international gathering since, hundreds of teams filling a field for a long August weekend, but it has kept the character of the first edition: relaxed, sunburnt, faintly ridiculous, and utterly charming.

Kubb on vo.rs

Kubb: The Viking Lawn Game With a World Championship on Gotland