Ballard Seafood Fest

The Nordic Spirit will be featured at this weekends 35th annual Ballard Seafood Fest! Come find us on Nordic Roe, right by the Ballard Library.

The New Nordic Heritage Museum

Did you know that the Nordic Heritage Museum is moving? Well, after over 25 years in its current home, the Museum is embarking on a journey to build a new facility with the space, location, and stature to engage future generations in learning about the Nordic immigrant experience in the Northwest and Scandinavian art and culture—past, present, and future. Contributions made to the campaign are directed toward acquiring nearly 75,000 square feet of property on Market Street in downtown Ballard and funding the construction of a state-of-the-art building in which the Museums exhibits, programs, and audiences will have the room to grow.

Viking Days!

The Nordic Heritage Museum’s annual Viking Days festival celebrates its 26th anniversary on July 11 and 12, 2009. This eventful weekend offers unique Scandinavian entertainment, food, arts & crafts merchants and real live Vikings only seen in Ballard! Our Taste of Scandinavia will represent each of the five Nordic countries featuring delectable edibles such as Swedish meatballs, Norwegian lefse, Danish æbleskiver, and a variety of Finnish and Icelandic goodies. Also enjoy our Traditional Swedish Pancake Breakfast and Famous Salmon Barbeque Dinner.

The Ravenstead Vikings will be on hand all weekend clad in their authentic costumes. They will show Viking Days visitors all aspects of Viking life in their small encampment. Viking arts and crafts such as weaving, spinning, woodcarving and cooking will be demonstrated, and will take you back to an earlier time. The Vikings will also lead discussions about many aspects of Viking life on both Saturday and Sunday. Visitors will also be able to view live performances of Viking battles!

Extraordinary, traditional folk music will be performed both days on multiple stages during Viking Days, including Nordic dance music from TinnFelén, as well as Corky Dragland performing accordion acrobatics. Also performing will be Sammamish Sublimation, and many more!

High quality Nordic crafts will be for sale at an array of merchant booths on site and kids can take part in hands-on crafts, try on Viking costumes and other activities during the festival.

On Saturday, Living Voices will present two unique and stirring presentations combining video and an interactive performer that will capture both your minds and your heart. Come learn what it was like to live in another time and experience the dynamically changing Northwest at the turn of the century. The expansion of the railroad, the discovery of gold, labor struggles, and world war - these are the passages experienced by a young Swedish immigrant and her community. As she interacts with her African, Asian, and Native American neighbors you'll discover the diversity of the American experience.

The very popular Traditional Swedish Pancake Breakfast takes place from 9 am to 12 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets: $6 children, $8 members, $10 non-members.

Our famous Salmon Barbeque Dinner will be on Saturday from 5 pm to 7 pm. Tickets: $10 children, $12 members, $15 non-members.

Ages 21+ can visit our special Valhalla Beer Garden for exclusive music and Nordic Heritage Museum brewed Viking beer!

Admission to Viking Days and the Museum is free, so take advantage of this very special weekend and see what goes on inside the Museum as well as on the grounds outside! Families and all ages are welcome.

All programs are subject to change without prior notice.

For general questions and information, please call 206-789-5707, or visit our website: www.nordicmuseum.org

See you at the Nordic Heritage Museum!

Wooden Boats Festival

Join us at the Lake Union Wooden Boats Festival this weekend, July 4th and 5th. The Nordic Spirit will be joining many other historic wooden boats from the Puget Sound region.

Essentials:
in South Lake Union
Saturday, July 4th and Sunday, July 5th, 2009
10 am – 6 pm daily
Suggested Donation: $5/person; $10/family

NW Folklife

We had a great time at Northwest Folklife this Memorial Day weekend. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our tent and saw the Nordic Spirit. I noticed many many people taking pictures with the Nordic Spirit, and I'd love to share those pictures on this blog. If you have any that you'd like to share, send me a link to your Flickr feed, post a comment, or email me at jasonh@nordicmuseum.org

To start things off, here's a picture that was taken of me after the Syttende Mai parade in Ballard last Sunday:

Photo by Lauren Richardson

Northwest Folklife

Thanks to everyone who made Ballard's celebration of Syttende Mai great! The Nordic Spirit made its official debut and we are just beginning to pull together photographs of the parade. I'll make sure to post a bunch in the coming weeks.

Northwest Folklife is this weekend, beginning on Friday and closing on Monday. The Nordic Heritage Museum is participating in a bunch of different ways: we will be active in the Nordic Village with Erik Holt showing off his woodcarving on Sunday, and lots of children's craft activities throughout the weekend. The Nordic Spirit will be nearby the Nordic Village, so be sure to stop by and say 'hi' to our staff and volunteers. Olaf Kvamme will be giving a presentation about Scandinavian participation in the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition on Friday at 6:00 pm on the Narrative Stage, and I will be giving a presentation on the Nordic Spirit the following Monday at 1:00 on the Narrative Stage.

Syttende Mai!

Join us in celebration of Norwegian Constitution Day at the largest 17th of May parade in the United States! We are excited to announce that the Nordic Spirit will be participating in the parade this year. This is the first major public appearance of the boat, and we expect it to be profound and inspirational.

If you would like to march alongside the boat in the Syttende Mai parade, come to the Nordic Heritage Museum by 2:00 on Sunday, May 17th. Be sure to fill out and bring the Individual Hold Harmless portion of the parade application with you. The parade begins at 4:00, and we are one of the first entries, so there will be plenty of time to enjoy the parade after we march down! We encourage anyone who marches to wear their Bunad or folk costume, or red or blue clothing.

If you have any questions, please give me a call at 206-789-5707 ex 27 or email at jasonh@nordicmuseum.org.