Celebrate Midsommer At Good Templar Park's 109th Swedish Day

GENEVA, IL -- Come celebrate Svenskarnas Dag (Swedish Day) at Good Templar Park this Sunday, June 16, in Geneva. This long-running ethnic festival, organized by the Swedish Day Committee of the International Order of Good Templars, has entertained the Fox Valley area for generations. This gem of a midsommer fest runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Good Templar Park, 528 East Side Drive, Geneva. Admission is $5; children 14 and under are free.

Good Templar Park’s Swedish Day is the oldest and longest running ethnic festival in Illinois, traditionally held the third Sunday in June, which also happens to be Father’s Day. The first Swedish picnic and celebration of the summer solstice was held in 1911 in Evanston. The annual picnic attracted thousands from Chicago’s Swedish immigrant community. Looking for a place where they could hold an alcohol-free midsommer festival, the mostly Swedish members of IOGT, a temperance-focused fraternal organization formed in the 19th century to combat the high rate of alcoholism in industrialized Europe, purchased 31 acres along the Fox River in 1925.

Swedish Day is still going strong in Good Templar Park after 109 years. The historic park is populated by charming summer cottages built in the 1930s and is home to the replica Viking Ship that sailed the Atlantic Ocean to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Scheduled activities feature:

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- Enjoy delicious Swedish pancakes, Swedish meatballs, herring, hamburgers and hotdogs, Sloppy Joes and more.

10 a.m. - Worship Service

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. -- Viking ship tours

11 a.m. - Viking reenactment

Noon - Maypole raising and dancing

1 p.m. - Viking reenactment

2 p.m. - Swedish dancers

~ Good Templar Park's Swedish Day is a separate event from Geneva's Swedish Days.