Annual festival to kick off Saturday in rural NYM

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Finn Creek Open Air Museum will turn back the clock of time during the annual Finn Creek Summer Folk Festival. 

The festival will kick off Saturday morning with the pancake/pannukakku breakfast beginning at 8 a.m., before Maamme and Star Spangled Banner will be performed by Niilo Tervola Hultberg at 9 a.m. The morning will also include a talent show at 9 a.m. and Finnish-American singer Jonathan Rundman beginning at 10 a.m. He will also perform at 11 a.m.

The children’s tractor pull will begin at 10;45 a.m., before the annual puppet pageant takes over the Finn Creek grounds at 12 p.m.

The afternoon will feature two more performers, including Steve Solkela at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., as well as Kip Peltoniemi at 2 p.m.

On Sunday the festival will feature a Finnish/English Ecumenical Chapel Service beginning at 10 a.m., before Doug Spartz will perform in the pavilion at 11 a.m. and again at 2:30 p.m.

A live auction will begin at 12 p.m., before the antique tractor pull kicks off at 12:30 p.m. 

The Scandinavian duo of Project Constellation will perform at both 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. and Kip Peltoniemi will be at the schoolhouse. The busy weekend will wrap up with the Finn Creek raffle at 4:30 p.m.

Throughout the weekend Finn Creek will have a variety of demonstrations including blacksmith, sawmill, steam engine, weaving, homemade ice cream, as well as the historical re-enactment group Jager Battalion Living History Group. 

There will be crafters/vendors, a farmers market, petting zoo, a suitcase simulation, molkky and a number of other yard games.

Admission into Finn Creek is $5 for adults, while children under the age of 16 are free. Finn Creek is located in rural New York Mills.