AUSTIN, Texas — This Saturday, families celebrated Swedish American heritage in Austin at the third annual Midsummer Festival.
Midsummer, or Midsommar, is a festival that happens every year in Sweden to celebrate the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year. That celebration is usually accompanied with flower crowns, Swedish meatballs, traditional Maypole dances and other Swedish treats.
At the Old Bakery and Emporium in Austin, people got a little taste of Sweden this weekend.
“It’s nice to see so many people and celebrating this Swedish American heritage,” Jonas Ullman, a Swedish immigrant, said.
Ullman was born and raised in Sweden but moved himself and his family to the U.S. a few years ago. Growing up going to Midsummer festivals, he said the childlike joy makes it one of the best days of the year.
“The day before Midsummer is the happiest days in Sweden. Like, the people in Sweden are the happiest because they're looking forward to Midsummer,” Ullman said.
But he wasn’t the only one experiencing a slice of home right here in Central Texas.
“I'm really happy to say I just saw a family that was here from Sweden. This is their second year in a row that [they] have come, and they, last year, were like, 'We couldn't get back to Sweden this year, so we were so happy to have something in Austin,'” Taylor Baker, who works marketing for the Museums and Cultural Programs Division of Austin's Parks and Recreation Department, said.
The event was held at the Old Bakery and Emporium on Congress Avenue, which was created in 1876 by Swedish immigrant Charles Lundberg. For those who also immigrated here, it meant a lot to have a Midsummer festival in the U.S.
“It’s a piece, a taste of home,” Baker said. “I mean, when you’re an immigrant, you want to experience your own culture in your new home.”
A new addition to this year’s festival was the unveiling of a new mural on the side of the bakery, created by Ruben Esquivel, a local fifth-generation Austinite and Latino and indigenous artist. Esquivel said it's been about a two- to three-year process to create the mural, which celebrates Swedish and indigenous culture. The mural was part of the Downtown Austin Alliance’s Writing on the Walls public art installation project.
Festival organizers say they plan to bring this festival back every single year going forward.