Autumn Festival in Minnesota

Nordic Music and Dance Plus Lutfisk at Autumn Festival in Minnesota 

  • Winners of the Lutfisk Toss at the Nordic Music Festival were the Norwegian team. They are joined in their victory photo by their cheerleaders and Master of Ceremonies for the competition. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith

  • Nordic Music and Dance Plus Lutfisk at Autumn Festival in Minnesota
    Victoria, MN — A sunny September Saturday, comfortable temperatures, a shady location and good music all helped create a fun environment for the annual Nordic Music Festival. The event sponsor, Nordic Heritage Club of Carver County, chose a great venue in Lion’s Park in Victoria, a western suburb of Minneapolis.

  • Cheerleaders for the Swedish team dressed in blue and gold and waved colorful pompons. They provided lots of cheer, but the team lost to the Norwegians once again. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith

  • Musical groups from Minnesota were the featured artists this year. “Ole’s Tent” and “Lena’s Café” were the locations for performances, crafters showed and shared their wares, Kubb was a popular activity and the Sons of Norway Viking Age Club exhibited their handicrafts. Dancing to the waltz and polka tunes was popular for the very young as well as the young at heart. A silent auction and lingonberry ice cream were available throughout the day.

  • Rebecca Akterhage of Lillehammar, Norway, said she had been practicing her bean bag tossing technique in preparation for the contest at the Nordic Music Festival. She preferred to don gloves, while others went bare handed. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith

  • Representing the choral music tradition were the Cloudberries and the American Swedish Institute Male Chorus. Dance groups were the Vasa Junior Dancers, including the very, very young all the way through college age, and Peer Gynt Norwegian group. Norsk dances were introduced by participants who were also proud to say how many years they had been members of the group.
    Instrumentalists were metro area musicians Elise Peters and Bruce Bostrom on the nyckelharpa, and Versk Spelman, a Swedish folk group from the Carver County area. Performing through song, a joke or two, and on fiddle, harmonium or accordion were Kip Peltoniemi, Ole Olssons Old Time Orkester and John Bergquist.

  • Ole Bigfoot Halvorssen proved to have good form, and garnered some winning points for the Norwegian team during the Lutfisk Toss in Victoria, MN. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith

  • Annual Lutfisk toss
    The culmination of the event was the annual Lutfisk Toss, with competition between the Norwegian and Swedish teams. Each team member had three tosses per turn, in which they picked up a chunk of lutfisk and tossed it toward a bucket about 25 feet away. The crowd was supportive, offering advice, suggesting that the participants needed to account for the wind, and providing compliments on a “good follow through” even if the fish did not go into the bucket. Both teams, the horned-helmeted Norwegians wielding swords and shields, and the Swedes wearing folkdräkt and waving blue and gold pom pons, had their own cheerleaders.

  • Jon Jonsson had some success in getting his lutfisk into the bucket. He brought in the final point for the Swedish team, however it wasn’t enough to take the championship this year. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith

  • At the end of the contest the judge announced, “For whatever reason, the Norwegians have won again.” They have taken nearly every competition title since the inception of the event. The fish was supplied by Olson’s, which has a slogan that says, “If it’s wholesome, it Olson’s.”
    The festival was made possible by grants and support from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Sons of Norway Foundation, the Scandia Lodge of Waconia, the Nordic Heritage Club of Carver County, and businesses and individual donors.

  • Bjorn Ericksson tries his hand at tossing lutfisk. The judge commented that he had good follow through, despite not getting his fish into the bucket. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith

  • Performers interested in participating in 2015 should visit the Nordic Heritage Club Facebook page and send a message to the planners. The festival welcomes groups from the Nordic countries, and invites them to consider including this event in their future North American tours. For more information visit www.nordicheritageclub.com

  • The Swedish team consisted of Lena Anderson, Jon Jonsson, Dr. Who from Gallifray, Sweden, and Bjorn Ericksson who said that the only training he had had was in wife tossing but that it wasn’t very well thought of in Sweden to do it, so he hadn’t had too much practice. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith

  • By Valorie Arrowsmith

  • Norwegian Viking cheerleaders were ready to encourage their team on to victory. They had a set list of cheers fastened to their shields, so they could hold them aloft and recite the cheer, all the while appearing to be in battle mode. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith