In 1981 several enthusiastic Iranian students started the Caspian Sport Association in northern Stockholm and organized a common celebration of the Fire Festival for the members and their families.

Five years later, an even bigger organization called House of Iran was established and took over the celebration arrangement with better resources and support from Sundbyberg Municipality. In 1994 the Iranian National Federation in Sweden (INF) was established and they gradually became the organizer of the celebration in Stockholm. After 2009 the Swedish National Turing Theatre (Riksteatern) became an actor in organization and celebration of the festival in Stockholm’s downtown. While during the first 25 years the festival was strongly delimited to the northern suburbs and was locally known, the arrangement by Riksteatern since 2009 contributed to huge attention to the festival in the city, in the country and later in the whole world.

Sweden is a country with a strong civil society sector and rich tradition of associations and non-profit organizations (Voluntarius.com). One of the areas the civil society is strong in is the production of urban festivals (Andersson et al., 2009). The aim of this research is to describe the historical evolution of the Fire Festival in Stockholm from a perspective of Swedish Civil Society sector and thereby analyze the success factors over the years. Initially, a qualitative method consisting of primary and secondary sources has been employed.