Midsummer’s in Lindsborg, 2008

Lindsborg celebrated Midsummer’s yesterday, and a great time was had by all. As previously reported, the format changed quite a bit for this year; the result was a pleasing mix of old and new!

The new layout in the park, the booths representing various aspects of traditional Swedish village life, and of course the wonderful Swedish dancing, all made for one of the best Midsummer’s celebrations I’ve attended.

On the photography front, this year turned out much better than last year. Though I took around 1,000 photos last year, I was disappointed with most of them, and only published a handful.

This year’s results speak for themselves; the 15 shown below were chosen from the set of 80 I posted on Flickr, and those were the best of the 178 that made the first cut, chosen from 784 total images.

Using Adobe Lightroom, it’s taken me about 5-7 hours to sort, process (crop, straighten, color balance), convert to jpeg and publish to Flickr and my web sites. Well worth it, I might add. I love trying to capture a fun event like Midsummer’s and then sharing it with the world.

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Susan and Becky did a tremendous job in leading the team this year, as we pulled off one of the best Midsummer’s in recent memory!
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Traditional manly dance.
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Swedish dancers.
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Swedes love their coffee!
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

More Swedish dancers.
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

I just love the dance with the flower covered hoops!
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

More of the hoop dance.
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Wheee!!
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

The Swedish dancers continue to be the highlight of Midsummer’s for me.
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

The dancers head to Sweden soon after Midsummer’s; think they look excited?
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

A master at work.
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Main street even had a Maypole this year.
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Midsummer’s isn’t complete without the traditional Maypole raising ceremony.
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

Leading the charge. The live musical accompaniment provided by these local musicians adds greatly to the days’ proceedings.
::

Midsummer's 2008 in Lindsborg

The frog dance, a humorous dance made more fun by the audience’s participation. Even the bishop is in the mood.
::