The traditional Midsummer Celebration will occur on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. with decorating the midsummer pole. Those attending are invited to bring flowers to place on the pole from their gardens or fields in honor of their ancestors. The procession will step off at 11 a.m. with the festival musicians and folk dancers. When the pole is erected, the entire community is encouraged to dance around the pole. There will be instruction for each dance as the group follows the leader.

A Swedish Folk Dance Mass will be held on Sunday at 3 p.m. The service was created by the Rev. Per Harling of the Swedish Lutheran Church. Participants will include the Rev. Alan Anderson officiating, Svenska Spelman, the Thule Adult Folk Dance Team and a choir from the community. The mass is a Holy Communion service that includes folk dance rhythms and dances such as the schottische, hambo, polka and waltz. The English version of the worship service premiered at Chautauqua Institution in 2006 at the Augustana Heritage gathering. Sunday will be the fourth time the local dance team has been part of this service.

The Oskar Stenmark Trio is one of the musical highlights for 2018. The trio is a Swedish jazz band with Oskar Stenmark playing the flugelhorn. The band is following the tour of Stenmark’s grandmother who was part of Rattvicks Spelmanslag when they performed in Jamestown in 1956.

Jeanne Eriksson Andersen and her band Smorgasbandet will return to Jamestown with lively Swedish music. They have been popular with audiences in the past. Additional music will be provided by local groups Svenska Spelman, the Viking Chorus and the Vasa Voices from Cleveland.

Pictured are singlad bolls, a workshop offered at the Scandinavian Folk Festival this weekend at Jamestown Community College.

Other special events include the Viking Village and ship with at least 19 Vikings involved. Several vendors will be located inside as well as outside. The festival-sponsored Loppis (flea market), Gift Shop and Hemslojdsbutik (handmade items) are gathering items to be sold. A genealogy research corner, led by the Fenton History Center, will offer the ability to look up ancestors. The family tent will be busy with continuous activities and scheduled workshops.

A variety of Swedish foods such as Swedish meatballs, korv, kaldolmar, rotmos, rice pudding, pickled herring and more will be served from the JCC cafeteria. Swedish pancakes with lingonberries will be available Sunday morning. Food will be available without paying a gate fee to enter the balance of the festival. The American Scandinavian Heritage Foundation will offer Norm’s korvburgers. Danish and local beers, as well as wine, will be offered in the beer tent, which will be separate from the entertainment tent. The Kaffe Stuga will serve ice cream sundaes and coffee.

The educational nature of the festival is highlighted with lectures. Some of the topics include the Viking Drum and Bugle Corps, “Jamestown is Still Swedish,” “Why the Vikings Came to North America,” “Ingmar Bergman’s 100th Birthday” and “Finding Your Swedish Ancestors.” Ulf Barslund Martensson, editor and publisher of the Swedish newspaper of America “Nordstjernan,” will make presentations entitled “Swedish American in the 21st Century” and “Will Sweden As We Know It Prevail?”

One hundred dollars will be the given to the winner of the Scandinavian trivia contest. The winner of the wife carrying Contest will receive the female’s weight in beer. One can play the Viking lawn game Kubb all weekend but there is also a contest to award a prize to the best player. Who is the best cook making something from cardamom? Entries must be submitted between 4 and 5 p.m. Saturday. Those interested can also pick up a Scandinavian passport, visit the various “ports of call” at the festival and win a prize.

The Festival has one of the best folk costume exhibits in the United States. Carl Larsson prints and Jamestown’s own painter Andrew Johnson’s original paintings will be located around the expanded exhibit hall in the Hamilton Collegiate Center.

The Folk Costume exhibit at the Scandinavian Folk Festival is pictured. Submitted photo

Several workshops will be offered over the weekend including Swedish social dancing (schottische, waltz, polka), Swedish weaving, making a midsummer head wreath, stamping a Swedish design on a t-shirt and making yarn dolls. A unique craft will be offered on Saturday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. making a singlad boll. The instructor is Annika Nohlberg Jildenmyr from Sweden. A singlad boll is a kind of embroidered ball that children made by themselves for a toy about 100 years ago. It does not require much experience. To reserve a seat, call 665-0883.

The Chautauqua Region Community Foundation is supporting the festival through its Edwin L. Danielson Community Service Fund, the Emil M. and Gertrude E. Johnson Fund, the Board, Member, Staff Fund and the Karl Peterson Field of Interest Fund.

For more information, visit Scandinavianjamestown.org or call 665-0883.