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June 5, 2008

Midsummer's Day 2008 Press Release

Step back in time and enjoy the magic of summer: Midsommardag 2008

Press Release

CONTACT:
888-227-2227 (Lindsborg Chamber of Commerce)
http://www.littleswedenusa.com/midsummers/


May 22, 2008 - For Immediate Release
"Midsummer's Festival to be held on Saturday, June 21st."

LINDSBORG, KS --Mark your calendars for the 3rd weekend in June to attend Midsummer's Day Festival in Lindsborg: Little Sweden USA. This traditional Swedish festival, which is celebrated worldwide, welcomes the arrival of the summer solstice. Now in its 37th year, Lindsborg's 2008 Midsummer's Festival promises to be a fun-filled day for everyone in the family!

Midsummer's will be celebrated on Saturday, June 21, beginning with opening ceremonies in Swensson Park at 9:30 a.m. (the park opens at 9:00 a.m.). Festival organizers have dramatically changed the festival this year with new events and activities intended to embrace the community's Swedish heritage and to involve guests and participants more intimately in the celebration.

Visitors can enjoy the magic of summer by stepping into a quaint Swedish village, which features artisans' shops, settlers' homes, artists and craftsmen's studios, a storyteller's den, and a homemaker's kitchen. They can absorb as well as observe. For example, the Svenska Vänskaps Gruppen (Swedish Friendship Group) will welcome casual visitors, explaining traditions, customs, and folklore handed down over generations - even helping them learn Swedish phrases.

As always, there will be music and dancing with the youthful Lindsborg Swedish Folkdancers and their elder counterparts, the Lindsborg Folkdanslag, each celebrated locally and nationally for their talent and jubilance. Visitors will be given the opportunity to join the dancers and learn a few steps. Special guests include author Kathy Bernstrom Lerfald and John Berquist, a teller of Scandinavian folk stories and musician.

The festival will also feature a children's area with crafts, games, and story-telling. Throughout the day, many Lindsborg residents and visitors will be in Swedish costume, adding to the flavor of Midsommardag.

A style show and other activities will be held in Bethany Lutheran Church in the afternoon.

The Volvo Car Club will host their regional rally at the north end of Swensson Park, which will be followed by a Road Rally on Sunday at 9:00 am.

Visitors are invited to join in the Midsummer's Interlude in downtown Lindsborg between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. for live music, food, games, and shopping. Mainstreet, a five-piece show band from Manhattan, will perform jazz, rock, blues and R&B. Downtown restaurants will serve Swedish food, and folks can judge the local businesses' individual maypole entries.

The Midsummer's Day celebration continues in the evening at the Old Mill Museum and its Swedish Pavilion and Heritage Complex. Visitors will experience the traditional raising of the maypole, followed by traditional Swedish dances. For those still left standing, the day will conclude with a swim at the Lindsborg swimming pool.

June 16, 2008

Midsummer's 2008 Program

If you haven't finalized your plans to visit Lindsborg and celebrate Midsummer's Day on Saturday, June 21st, this may help. We're pleased to make available the event program, featuring information about all of the new activities planned for this year.

The program is available as a full-color PDF file:

2008 Midsummer's Program

June 19, 2008

Midsummer's Day 2008 is this Weekend!

It's hard to believe we've come this far since our first Midsummer's committee meeting in January, but Lindsborg will be celebrating Midsummer's this weekend, Saturday June 21st.

You can visit our Midsummer's Day web site for more information, and a PDF of the full-color, 8 page program is available:

Midsummer's Day Program

I've been involved with 4 Midsummer's celebrations and this year promises to be one of the best ever! Quoting from a recent Midsummer's press release:

Festival organizers have dramatically changed the festival this year with new events and activities intended to embrace the community's Swedish heritage and to involve guests and participants more intimately in the celebration.
Visitors can enjoy the magic of summer by stepping into a quaint Swedish village, which features artisans' shops, settlers' homes, artists and craftsmen's studios, a storyteller's den, and a homemaker's kitchen. They can absorb as well as observe. For example, the Svenska Vänskaps Gruppen (Swedish Friendship Group) will welcome casual visitors, explaining traditions, customs, and folklore handed down over generations - even helping them learn Swedish phrases.

Finally, to further get you in the mood for Midsummer's this weekend, here's a few photos from Midsummer's past:

Press the "reload/refresh" button in your browser to see a different set of photos. You can also view more photos of Midsummers in Lindsborg from years gone by.


June 22, 2008

Midsummer's in Lindsborg, 2008

Lindsborg celebrated Midsummer's yesterday, and a great time was had by all. As previously reported, the format changed quite a bit for this year; the result was a pleasing mix of old and new!

The new layout in the park, the booths representing various aspects of traditional Swedish village life, and of course the wonderful Swedish dancing, all made for one of the best Midsummer's celebrations I've attended.

On the photography front, this year turned out much better than last year. Though I took around 1,000 photos last year, I was disappointed with most of them, and only published a handful.

This year's results speak for themselves; the 15 shown below were chosen from the set of 80 I posted on Flickr, and those were the best of the 178 that made the first cut, chosen from 784 total images.

Using Adobe Lightroom, it's taken me about 5-7 hours to sort, process (crop, straighten, color balance), convert to jpeg and publish to Flickr and my web sites. Well worth it, I might add. I love trying to capture a fun event like Midsummer's and then sharing it with the world.


Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Susan and Becky did a tremendous job in leading the team this year, as we pulled off one of the best Midsummer's in recent memory!
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Traditional manly dance.
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Swedish dancers.
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Swedes love their coffee!
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

More Swedish dancers.
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

I just love the dance with the flower covered hoops!
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

More of the hoop dance.
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Wheee!!
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

The Swedish dancers continue to be the highlight of Midsummer's for me.
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

The dancers head to Sweden soon after Midsummer's; think they look excited?
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

A master at work.
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Main street even had a Maypole this year.
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Midsummer's isn't complete without the traditional Maypole raising ceremony.
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Leading the charge. The live musical accompaniment provided by these local musicians adds greatly to the days' proceedings.
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Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

The frog dance, a humorous dance made more fun by the audience's participation. Even the bishop is in the mood.

About June 2008

This page contains all entries posted to Midsummer's Day Festival in June 2008. They are listed from oldest to newest.

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