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Lunch-goers by the hundreds bust a move in Sweden 


STOCKHOLM (AP) — Some workers in Sweden have found a rather offbeat way to spend their lunch hour. Actually, on beat is more like it.

Dripping with sweat and awash in disco lights, they dance away to pulsating club music at Lunch Beat, a trend that started in Stockholm and is spreading to other cities in Europe.

Then they go back to work.

“It is absolutely fantastic!” exclaimed Asa Andersson, 33, who broke away from her job at a coffee shop to bust some moves last week. “It is the first time I’m here, I’m totally happy and ecstatic, totally covered in sweat and I’m full of energy. It does not get any better than this.”

The first Lunch Beat was held in June 2010 in an underground parking lot in Stockholm. Only 14 people showed up. But they had so much fun they immediately planned another event. Word spread, and now the Swedish capital has monthly Lunch Beats that attract hundreds.

Similar events have been held in at least 10 other Swedish cities and in Finland and Serbia. Portugal’s first try will be in Porto next month, organisers said.

The party starts at noon and goes on for one hour. There’s no alcohol, which gives it a different ambiance than nighttime clubbing, said Daniel Odelstad, the 31-year-old organiser of Lunch Beat Stockholm.

“People are sober, it’s in the middle of the day and it is very short, effective and intensive,” he said. “You just have to get in there and dance because the hour ends pretty quickly.”

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