Little Sweden USA

Irv Gordon and his multi-million mile Volvo were in Lindsborg recently as the Volvo Car Club held its annual gathering in conjunction with Lindsborg’s Midsummer’s celebration last June. Juliana found this press release and I wanted to pass it along; Lindsborg is in some good company in this listing! Here’s the quote about Lindsborg; the full article follows below the fold:

Lindsborg, Kan. (a.k.a. Little Sweden) “Lindsborg is a real taste of Sweden hidden 150 miles west of Kansas City. The town is beautiful, neat as a pin and the townsfolk are just as friendly as can be. Swedish pancakes and other specialties are served in almost every restaurant in town. Swedish Midsommer celebrations with Swedish folk dancing take place in June each year. Don’t forget to stop by the bison ranch nearby and check out the wildlife.”

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On Friday, we attended Lindsborg’s theater under the stars, Broadway RFD. This year’s show was State Fair, the charming musical by Rogers and Hammerstein featuring the adventures of the Frake family as they seek fame and love at the 1946 Iowa State Fair.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about this choice, but within moments of the show’s beginning I found myself totally captivated! I forgot how much I enjoy musicals, plus the actors’ performances were uniformly very strong; to single out any one cast member would beunfair to the others, though I do have to comment on how hilarious the judge was. She cracked up the audience with her rendition of a judge who greatly enjoyed the mincemeat that contained Pa’s (and Ma’s) special ingredient, brandy.

Broadway RFD is the longest running outdoor theater in Kansas and celebrates its 50th anniversary next year with the classinc musical, Annie Get Your Gun.

I took almost 200 photos, but given the low light levels, many of them turned out blurry or very blurry. The best have been posted here: Flickr Broadway RFD set, and I’ve also created a Broadway RFD photo slide show for your enjoyment.

A baker’s dozen of my favorites are shown below:

Kansas’ Swedish Smorgasbord

That’s the headline for a nice feature story about Lindsborg published on AAA’s online travel website, Home & Away. The article covers a broad variety of topics, including the Wild Dalas, Swedes’ love of coffee and the newly opened Swedish Crown restaurant. There’s no real news for residents and frequent visitors to Little Sweden, USA, but it’s a great article to share with family, friends and other potential visitors.

You can read the article here: Kansas’ Swedish Smorgasbord

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Lindsborg’s 2007 Svensk Hyllningsfest celebration continued on Saturday, beginning with the parade, which was held under blue skies! Naturally, I took a few (195) photos. I whittled that set down to 95, which are posted at Flickr, and from there I was able to select my 25 favorites, shown below in the extended entry area:

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Svensk Hyllningsfest is Lindsborg’s biennial long weekend festival when community members welcome thousands of visitors and revel in the excitement and pageantry of a three-day “tribute to the Swedish pioneers” who first settled the Smoky Valley of central Kansas in 1869.

Established in October 1941, Hyllningsfest is the community’s own creation, something unique in Swedish-America. The locally-created term literally means Swedish “honoring festival.” This year’s theme is “Swedish Tributes, Treasures & Traditions.”

Today marked one of the very rare times when the proceedings had to be moved indoors, due to a strong storm that included heavy rain and lightning.

The change in venue, to the Forsberg Gymnasium at the Soderstrom School, didn’t lessen the enthusiasm of the performers or the crowd. Close to 1000 people filled the gym, and school superintendent Glenn Suppes and staff deserve a big hand for accomodating the festivities on very short notice.

Below are a few photos I took, beginning with local and visiting dignitaries including Hector Vallejos, the mayor of Munkfors, Lindsborg’s sister sister in Sweden. Also present were Lindsborg’s mayor, Judy Neuschafer, and the new president of Bethany College, Dr. Ed Leonard. Guests of honor were this year’s Hyllningsfest Royalty, Ken and Marilyn Sjogren. The last couple of pictures are of my grand-daughter Moneka, captured as she’s performing a traditional Swedish folk dance.

The pictures also include a a few of young perfomers today; a few more images are available at Flickr.

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Today was the first annual Lindsborg Community World Fair which was sponsored by Lindsborg Tomorrow, a group focused on Lindsborg’s future. Due to the high wind conditions we moved from Swensson Park to the Stroble-Gibson Center on Bethany Campus. In some ways I suppose it worked better indoors (there were walls behind the tables for posting flags and banners), but we did miss the bandshell stage and the general nice atmosphere in the park.

The event featured over 20 tastes, talents and tables representing food and culture from around the world. There was a wide variety of food, available in snack-sized servings, from Asia, Africa, Europe, and both South and North America. The tasty treats included both sweet and savory items and were very good! Most of the tables were decorated with cultural items from the various countries represented, and throughout the afternoon there were musical and other performances from around the world. Great fun!

We even had a contest for the best taste, talent and table. The best taste was won by the Italian entry and the best talent was won by the salsa dance group; their table also won the best table award. Thanks to everyone who participated by bringing a taste, performing or decorating their table; without you, there would be no fair!

In addition to the entertainment, this event provided an opportunity for Lindsborg Tomorrow representatives from each of the Action Teams to give brief updates on their group’s past activities as well as provide information to prospective team members. The freewill offering at the door helped raised money to support the Lindsborg Tomorrow effort.

And I took pictures. 330 to be exact! I whittled that set down to 172 and have posted them to Flickr: Lindsborg World Fair. I’ve also selected the best 50 and posted them to Flickr: Lindsborg World Fair (top 50). Finally, I chose my favorite 20 images and they’re shown below.

I hope you enjoy the photos as much as the crowd enjoyed the fair this afternoon; I know I had a great time and heard many positive comments from happy fair-goers. A very special tip of the hat to Terry Larson, who was the force behind the first annual Lindsborg Community World Fair. She will claim that Greg, Greg, Glenn and I helped, but we know what really happened; congratulations on a great job Terry!

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