NISSWA — Nisswa-stämman Scandinavian Folk Music festival will host its final festival, virtually, June 11-13.
For 21 years, Nisswa-stämman has been one of the premier Scandinavian folk music festivals in the U.S., attracting countless musicians and lovers of this understated and beautiful folk music and dance, organizers stated in a news release. The board and staff of the festival decided it is now time to let a new generation carry forward, so this will be the last official Nisswa-stämman.
The finale is intended to be a celebration of the entire history of the event, so musicians from 2001 to 2020 were invited to submit a video performance and 65 responses were received. The event will stream on the Nisswa-stämman Facebook and YouTube pages on three consecutive nights at 7 p.m. each night. Festival links are facebook.com/nisswastamman and youtube.com/user/nisswastamman .
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Admission to the streaming events is free, but donations are encouraged through a PayPal link on the websites. The nonprofit organization hopes to sponsor stand-alone Scandinavian folk music concerts and workshops in the area into the future.
June 11 will showcase the traditional Friday night concert and dance, featuring five bands from the Nordic countries. These concert groups include Julie Alapnes & Halvard Rundberg, Norway; Olov Johansson, Erika Lindgren Liljenstolpe & Robert Larsson, Sweden; the Järvelä Family Band, Finland; Guldhammer & Høirup featuring Bugge, Tesch and Kjøller-Henningsen, Denmark. The last band is a collection of well-known musicians from Røros, Norway, who call themselves “Greetings From Røros," playing a set of fantastic dance music.
Dancing along will be the Norske Folkedanslaget from Minneapolis, highlighted in a small inset window on the screen. This could be the first trans-Atlantic dance ever done in this manner, organizers stated. The last two nights, June 12-13, will feature 30 performances each night, submitted by alumni Nisswa-stämman musicians from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the USA.
A complete listing of the musicians will be available on the website at nisswastamman.org or by email at nisswastamman@gmail.com .
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Nisswa-stämman is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Five Wings Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage fund.
