Several new events on tap for Finn Creek Festival
News | Published on August 15, 2023 at 4:12pm GMT+0000 | Author: Tucker Henderson
0Yard-bowling tournament set for Saturday afternoon
By Tucker Henderson
Reporter
Finn Creek Open Air Museum has some new entertainment lined up for this year’s Folk Festival during Saturday, Aug. 19 and Sunday, Aug. 20.
One of the newest additions to the Festival is the U. S. Mölkky Association tournament on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. Mölkky is a Finnish yard-bowling game which is a highly popular summer cabin game and is widely played in the United States as well.
Another addition will include the Jäger Battalion Living History Group, which will be on the premises on Saturday at 3 p.m. presenting a re-enactment of war in Finland during the early 1900s. The group has extensive history with reenactments, but has added Finnish history to its repertoire in recent years.
During both Saturday and Sunday, a new entertainment segment called Creative Community Collective will provide visitors and festival-goers a chance to showcase their own talents whether it be singing, poetry, drama, comedy, or another talent people would like to share. These open mic times will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Tasty meals will abound in the kitchen as volunteers serve up barbecue sandwiches, hot dogs, pancakes, pannukakku, slices of pie, ice cream and a variety of other assorted goodies.
The Puppet Pageant will put on its second performance on the Finn Creek grounds as it has the past few years. The pageant is loosely-based on the national Finnish epic, the Kalevala and illustrates the story of “Vainominen and the Golden Goose” and its cast of local youth bring the story to life.
Vendors ranging from crochet plushies to the NY Mills Farmer’s Market booth will provide visitors a large variety of locally-grown and made offerings, perfect for presents or a summer treat.
A live auction will commence at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon with Perala Bros. Auctioneers auctioning off items such as handmade benches, wooden Minnesota Vikings signs, and many more unique sales items.
The Finnish and English Ecumenical Church Service will be held on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. where individuals can hear local preachers Stew Burns and Jake Aho preach in both languages as well as sing hymns that have filled the local church sanctuaries for generations.
A conversation hour about Finland and Finnish America will take place on both days: Saturday at 9 a.m. and Sunday at 3:15 p.m. Make sure to bring your photos, artifacts, and stories to regale your neighbor about your own history, heritage, and upbringing in Finnish culture.
Finn Creek will also be accepting the National Historical Preservation Award presented by nominators Fergus Falls Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at a special ceremony on Sunday.
Another large offering that the community has been missing is the Antique Tractor Pull, which has been on hiatus from the Finn Creek Festival for a number of years. This will take place at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
There will be activities for children, raffle tickets for sale as well as the drawing on Sunday, Children’s Tractor Pull, Pannukakku breakfast (Finnish oven pancake), as well as all of the great history and sights of the museum, as well as Finn Creek, which runs on the north side of the property.