MINOT, N.D. (AP) - Scandinavian culture and heritage will be on display in Minot this week as the city hosts the 37th annual Norsk Hostfest.
The event is billed as the largest Scandinavian festival in North America. Each year it draws about 60,000 people from around the world for food, music and other entertainment celebrating the Scandinavian culture of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
“A lot of people come for the food, and the food is phenomenal,” Hostfest Executive Director Pam Davy told KXMC-TV. “We bring in 15 chefs from Scandinavia.”
The nonprofit festival was founded in 1978 by the late Chester Reiten, a North Dakota broadcasting pioneer and politician, and a group of friends. This year’s Hostfest is Tuesday through Saturday at the North Dakota State Fairgrounds.
Each Nordic nation is represented in one of the halls in which the festival takes place, with each hall named after the country’s capital city. The city’s Scandinavian Heritage Park is billed as the only park in the world representing all five Nordic countries.
“I was just talking to a lady from the far reaches of Minnesota the other day,” Davy said. “She said, ’You have no idea how important Hostfest is to us … it’s better than Christmas.’”
The festival also includes the annual inductions into the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame. This year’s honorees are legendary Tonight Show bandleader Doc Severinsen, pop singer Bobby Vee and Sig Hansen, star and technical adviser of the documentary TV series “Deadliest Catch” on the Discovery Channel. They will be inducted during a ceremony on Wednesday.
More than 125 people have been inducted into the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame since 1984. They include Hollywood actor Josh Duhamel, former White House political adviser Karl Rove, puppeteer Jim Henson, aviator Charles Lindbergh and astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.