Swedish Days Festival 2013

Swedish Days 2013....

Holdrege has a rich heritage full of Swedish origin, myself included. The second weekend in June, Father's Day weekend, the town comes together to host Swedish Days. They once tried to rename it "Midsummer Festival" to no avail. I guess Swedish Days is just catchier. It has been a highlight of my summer as far back as I can remember, even more so now. I thoroughly enjoy going "back home" when the town is all out and about mingling and unifying under a common heritage celebrating through various festivities. I enjoy introducing my boys to this culture and heritage as well.  

The line up of events gets better and better every year, though I do miss the old "Porch Festival" on East and West Avenue's original houses where each would host a different activity, vendor or craft that you could experience door to door. There was cotton candy, snow cones, cookie decorating, antiques, kiddie games, ethnic food, dress up and many more things to do, try and see. This day in age they do the same, only in vendor booths lining downtown instead of among the shady porches. 

Also among the original lineup long lost were also Bed Races, horse drawn buggy rides & museum tours. 

  

Some things remain steady over the decades including the parade, Silver Run, Car Show & Shine, street dance, courthouse games for kids and the Swedish Breakfast. 

In modern line up you will find new fun things such as the ever popular Air show, Rib Fest, and All Class Reunion.

See a Swedish Days video HERE.

The first event we participate in is the Kid's Courthouse Games on the courthouse lawn. The boys enjoy going to each booth and playing on the inflatables.

The HOT game this year was the juice ring toss. The boys competed to see who could win the most juice....

We also took a friend of the family's daughter Remi with while her mom and Grandma worked. She is absolutely adorable and much less shy than a couple years back when I attempted taking her pictures. She jumped right in with the boys....

The other huge hit was the Dragon inflatable....

There was also the infamous duck pond, tattoos, pinwheels, beanbag toss, sticker sheets, bracelet making and other kiddie carnival fun....

There was also an inflatable Tigger obstacle course (but dragons are cooler)....

When we left a storm was building. It produced some amazing lightning on the way down to Orleans for Gage's birthday party. Luckily it stayed away for the party. 

Saturday morning we woke bright and early for the annual Silver Run!!!! I hadn't participated in it since High School! 

It was going to be my mom, sister and I for the 2 mile walk. At the last minute my brother-in-law Shawn decided to join. Glad he did, he paced us much faster than I would have and gave me a new PR. He got 1st for his age division, Tiff & I got 4th and 5th and mom got 9th. <See full race results HERE> Not too shabby!!!!!

Mayor Coach J (my former Cross Country Coach) Starting us off

One thing I didn't like was how we all got jumbled in the shoot AFTER the finish line. I know for a fact I got someone else's time. Mine was in the 29 minutes, I synchronized my stopwatch with theirs and they gave me a 30 minute time. People pushed passed me in the shoot after the finish line and it was a little frustrating.

After the run/walk we all raced through the showers and headed down to the parade. This is a definite highlight of the weekend. It ranks up there with the 4th of July parade in Belle. There are definite parallels between the two as well, however one is prominently farming and the other prominently ranch.... there are HUGE differences. See a comparison HERE. Dad used to be in the parade handing out Kinetico water. Uncle Rick used to be too, dressed in character for the Harlan County Dam Playhouse. This year neither were.

Hot Dog Launcher

Wayne & his Hot Dog

He had the wings on last time & we had to duck. 

Elvis & his Pink Cadillac show up every year...

The little kids get stuffed animals...

Long Lost Friends, the Peterson's....

Dad's Bosses dressed in Swedish attire...

Swedish couples...

After the parade our entire gang headed down to McCook for the annual Howell Family Reunion. Its always nice keeping in touch and seeing everyone in person. You can view these pictures in the Nebrska trip 2013 post.

When we got back to Holdrege, Dad, Grandma, Braden and us went to RibFest!! We thought there would be a cover charge then you could try from each each vendor like a chili cookoff. Instead it was buy by the plate at each vendor. It was still a great experience and many vendors let us sample. 

Jake's favorite was the homemade Chile Rellanos. He had 3 or 4! 

There were also pulled pork sandwiches and brisket at some of the booths. Grandma had the sandwich. 

Wayne and I chowed down on some ribs....

I can't remember who won but they were all spectacular. It's on my list for each year.  


There were more inflatables for the kids to play in. Always a win!

Wherever they go, they wrestle...

We weren't able to go to the air show this year since the reunion was out of town and at the same time. We went a couple years ago and got a bit overheated but it was neat to watch. Here is one plane that drove over after the parade...

That concluded the portion of Swedish Days the Tonsagers participated in this year.