Free concerts and family events at Bishop Hill for annual festival
BISHOP HILL – The annual Midsommar Music Festival returns here on June 21.
Highlights of the traditional Swedish holiday festival include free concerts in the park, a Swedish Maypole celebration and more. Attendees are asked to bring their own lawnchairs to better enjoy the day’s concerts.
Celebrating Midsommar, one of the two most popular holidays in Sweden – the other being Christmas – is a very ancient practice, dating back to pre-Christian times. It has its roots in pagan rituals to welcome summer and the season of fertility.
In Sweden, Midsommar festivals have been around for at least 500 years. Even in agrarian times, people in Sweden welcomed summertime by decorating their houses and farm tools with foliage and raising tall Maypoles to dance around.
The free concerts at the village park gazebo will begin at 10 a.m. This year’s lineup includes Black Hawk Pipes and Drums, Chloe Finch, the Orion Community Band and the Norwegian Bachelor Farmers.
Immediately following the musical performances at 4 p.m., everyone is invited to decorate the Maypole with flowers and to join a procession that will begin in the park and end at the Colony School. There visitors can join in Maypole dancing and have refreshments provided by the Bishop Hill Vasa Lodge. No experience is required to join in the dancing.
The Vasa National Archives, a short block south of the park, willoffer a midsummer respite, featuring drinks, snacks and a make-and-take clay sculpture station. The public is welcome to view exhibits, enjoy light refreshments and make a clay sculpture to take home. The Vasa National Archives will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Author Jannifer Stevens Powelson will have a book signing from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Prairie Arts Center, located at 203 N. Bishop Hill St. Jannifer is author of the Rachel and Sammy books, as well as Nature Station Mysteries series. Visit her website at janniferpowelson.com for more details.
To finish off the day, country music artist Ryan Bizarri will perform at the Colony Inn from 7-11 p.m. Enjoy a cold drink while listening to live acoustic country music. Bizarri is a Nashville-based songwriter who will be playing songs you know and love from artists like Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, Brad Paisley, Zac Brown, Alabama, Morgan Wallen, Bob Seger and more.
The Midsommar Music Festival is sponsored by the Bishop Hill Heritage Association, Bishop Hill State Historic Site, Bishop Hill Old Settler’s Association, Vasa National Archives, Bishop Hill Vasa Lodge 683, and area businesses. Funding is also provided by the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council.
