This year’s Scandinavian Folk Festival, held Friday through Sunday, offers a choice of several lectures of historical significance.

There is no fee to attend any of the lectures beyond the festival’s gate fee. At the festival, the lectures, are just one of the many events.

The New Sweden Colony in Delaware will be presented by Trevor Brandt, curator of the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia. The New Sweden Colony existed on both sides of the Delaware River between 1638 and 1655 and was the first permanent European settlement in the area. The lecture takes place Saturday at 2 p.m.

Dr. Julie Lindblom Boozer will portray her grandmother, a single 18-year-old girl arriving at Jamestown’s Erie Railroad Station alone at midnight in the 1880s. The portrayal is based on the adventures of “crossing the pond” as told by her grandmother. The lecture takes place Sunday at 2 p.m.

There was a reason that Southwestern New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania became a major destination for Swedish immigrants. Two little girls, apparently because of a mistake, began the tidal wave that explains why many of Scandinavian heritage are in the area now. The facts will be presented by Donald Sandy with copies of legal documents distributed to the audience. Sandy’s lecture takes place Friday at 6 p.m.

John Everett Jones, who maintains an informative web site Jamestownswedes.org, will describe the religious motivations of the Swedes who established the Scandinavian community in the Jamestown area. He will share details about the formation of congregations and conflicts that divided the Swedish community along with biographies of the first Swedish ministers. Jones’ discussion will be at 4 p.m. Saturday.

A virtual tour, led by Michael Lindner, will take those attending back through time as Stockholm’s Tre Kronor Castle evolves from a single 12th century tower-keep into a Renaissance palace of the Swedish Empire.

Milton Franson, an author of popular historical Viking writings, grew up in Jamestown. He will share his study of the Viking explorers from the Sagas and Leif Erikson’s settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in North America circa AD 1000. He will also discuss suspected evidence of the Vikings in North America. Franson’s discussion is at 3 p.m. Saturday.

All the lectures will be held in the Carnahan Building of Jamestown Community College, 525 Falconer St., Jamestown.

There will be several other lectures such as the Swedish Language, Swedish Genealogical Research at Fenton, Scandinavian Folk Costumes, Swedish Antique Dolls, Thule Lodge’s Folk Dance Team trip to Sweden, a local contestant’s experience on a Swedish television contest about genealogy, the Viking Drum and Bugle Corps, a discussion about how the area is still Swedish, and a presentation about the life of author Astrid Lindgren.

For more information visit scandinavianjamestown.org or call 665-0883.