The 21st Annual Scandinavian Folk Festival will take place this Saturday and Sunday at the Northwest Arena.
This year’s festival theme is “Let’s Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of ABBA.” The hours for the Festival are from 10:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, and from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.
Representing Sweden, ABBA won the Eurovision Contest in 1974 performing their world-wide hit song “Waterloo.” This event launched their career and led to their music becoming Sweden’s number one export.
ABBA tribute band, ABBAMANIA, from Toronto, Canada, is highlighting this year’s Festival. The band will perform at 8:00 p.m., Saturday July 20. This concert is ticketed as a separate event of the Festival. Concert ticket holders can come for dinner with no Festival fee after 6:00 p.m.
A midsummer celebration will begin at 10:00 a.m. Saturday at the Jamestown Public Market on West Third Street with a 21-foot tall midsummer pole being decorated with greens and flowers.
People are encouraged to bring flowers from your garden and place them on the pole in honor of your Swedish ancestors. At 11:00 a.m., the pole will be carried along West Third Streets by the Festival’s folk dancers and musicians, where it will then be erected on the corner of Lafayette and West Third Streets.
A craft table will be outside the front door of the Northwest Arena from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. for people to make midsummer head wreaths. The entire midsummer celebration is free and open to the public.
The two-day event will have music throughout both days that includes The Thule Lodge Adult Swedish Folk Dance Team and Vasa Voices from Cleveland.
There also will be panel discussions and educational talks.
Food and refreshments will be available that include Swedish meatball dinners and korv burgers.
The entrance fee for the Scandinavian Folk Festival inside the Northwest Arena is $5.
For more information, visit http://www.scandinavianjamestown.org, https://www.facebook.com/ScandinavianFolkFest/, or call (716) 665-0883.
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