Happy Adventuring: Scandinavian Festival

Scandi Fest!!! It's almost Scandi Fest time! Raise your hand if you are so excited that you can just hardly stand it!! 

Reasons why the Scandi Fest is the best:
1. It's free.
2. There are vikings.
3. One word: Aebelskivers.
What more could you possibly need? 

The Junction City Scandinavian Festival is celebrating it's 55th year, and it is such a great family event. This year it is August 6-9. The festival celebrates Scandinavian heritage - Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Don't worry - you don't have to be Scandinavian to enjoy this. If you like yummy food, entertaining performances, and beautiful costumes, you'll have a blast. Here's how it works: Junction City closes down traffic on a few streets. These streets fill up with vendors selling food and crafts. There are three stages with all sorts of demonstrations and performances. It is awesome. 

The Festival has a really organized and helpful website, but every time I tried to check it out this weekend, it was super slow. It always eventually loaded, but it took a bit of patience. Weird?! Anywho, the website has a daily schedule, and a list of activities. Some highlights you might want to look for: 

• Kid's parade and Maypole dance
  
• Lessons to learn Scandinavian dance moves
  
• Lots of dance performances 
  
• So many demonstrations: instruments, handicrafts, blacksmithing, etc.
  
• An aebleskiver eating contest (They are little fried balls of dough, and they are delish. Don't bother entering. I plan on winning.)
  
• Scandinavian storytelling
  
• Breakfast buffet on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings
  

Tips:

• The festival is free, but I promise you won't be able to leave without buying food. Take cash. There's only one ATM nearby, and there's always a huge line.
  
• We usually go in the evening, because that's when my husband is home. Clearly that's how lots of other people do it too, because it is always SLAMMED. If you can, check it out during the day. I bet it would be way easier to navigate. This year I'm planning on taking the boys early in the morning, and hitting the breakfast buffet. Kids ages five and under eat free, and adults are $7. I'm hoping that we can get a wide sampling of food and skip standing in several lines at the booths. 
  
• I love how the festival is laid out: it's laid out over a few city blocks, which means it's a pretty straight shot to walk up one side, back down the other, and feel sure that you saw most everything.
  
• There are lots of parking lots where you can pay to park, but we have never had a problem finding free spots on the street.
  
• If you see the aebleskiver booth without a giant line, go buy some right that second. That line gets out of control super fast.
  
• Once you get food, there aren't really a ton of places to sit and eat. Take your food off of the main street (the one with the windmill in the center) and head to one of the side blocks. There are several small areas with picnic tables, but you have to look for them. 
  
• Go sit at the main stage (it's the one with the bleachers) and check out some of the dancing. It's pretty impressive! 
  
• Be sure to take water bottles from home, unless you want to pay a buck or two for a bottle from a vendor. 
  
• Even when we've visited the festival at it's busiest, it's been okay to take a stroller. You'd probably be able to move faster without one, but who wants to be in a hurry at a festival? 
  

The Essentials
Parking: Plenty, both free and paid
Cost: Free!
Food: So much food. 
Restrooms: There are several portapotties scattered around, as well as some flush toilets in some of the buildings.
Resting/Nursing spots: Behind the vendor booths/in front of the buildings, there are some benches. There are picnic tables scattered around as well. 
Push or Wear: Either one works. 
Time Frame: At least an hour.

The Details
Where: Junction City, about 15 miles north of Eugene on Highway 99. Once you drive in to Junction City you can't miss it, but specifically it's centered around 6th & Juniper with many blocks shooting off from there.
When: Thursday, August 6 - Sunday, August 9, 10am-10pm every day.
click here for specific hours & schedule of events. Each day has a different theme & it's just so fun!
How Much: Free entry, free dancing, performances & demonstrations. The meat pies & Fri-joes will cost you (but they're so worth it!).

Happy Adventuring! 

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Megan Defferding is the mom to two super fun boys who love to find great stuff to do all around Lane County! Check out her blog series, Happy Adventuring, weekly on GoMomGo.