Sarah & the Underground perform in the 2024 Bishop Hill Midsommar Music Festival -- June 22.

Saturday, June 22

Bishop Hill IL

With highlights from the eagerly awaited annual event including free concerts in the park, a Swedish Maypole celebration, a book signing, children's activities, and more, everyone is invited to attend the 2024 Bishop Hill Midsommar Music Festival on June 22, a family-friendly celebration of this Swedish holiday.

Celebrating Midsommar, one of the two most popular holidays in Sweden (the other being Christmas), is a very ancient practice, dating back to pre-Christian times. It has its roots in Pagan rituals to welcome summer and the season of fertility. In Sweden, Midsommar festivals have been around for at least 500 years. Even in agrarian times, people in Sweden welcomed summertime by decorating their houses and farm tools with foliage and raising tall May poles to dance around.

The free concerts at the Village Park gazebo in Bishop Hill, Illinois, will begin at 10 a.m. This year’s lineup includes performances by Black Hawk Pipes & Drums, Sarah & the Underground, the Orion Community Band, Jazz on the Side, and the Norwegian Bachelor Farmers. Immediately following the musical performances at 4 p.m., everyone is invited to decorate the Maypole with flowers and to join the procession. This parade will begin in the park and end at the Bishop Hill Colony School, where visitors can join in the Maypole dancing and have refreshments provided by the Bishop Hill Vasa Lodge. No experience is required to join in the dancing, and guests are asked to bring lawn chairs for all outdoor events.

Dancing around the Maypole at the Bishop Hill Midsommar Music Festival.

Author Jannifer Stevens Powelson will be signing her books from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Prairie Arts Center, located at 203 North Bishop Hill Street. Powelson will be celebrating the upcoming release and launch of Summer Solstice, the ninth book in the her Nature Station mystery series, with more information available by visiting JanniferPowelson.com.

The Vasa National Archives, a short block south of the park, will be offering a Midsummer Respite featuring drinks, snacks, and a make-and-take clay sculpture station. The public is welcome to view exhibits, enjoy some light refreshments, and make a clay sculpture to take home, with the Vasa National Archives open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This year's Midsommar Music Festival is sponsored by the Bishop Hill Heritage Association, Bishop Hill Arts Council, Bishop Hill State Historic Site, Bishop Hill Old Settler’s Association, Vasa National Archives, Bishop Hill Vasa Lodge #683, and area businesses. Regional Media is the major media sponsor, and funding is provided by the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council.

For more information on the 2024 Bishop Hill Midsommar Music Festival, call (309)927-3899 and visit VisitBishopHill.com.

Support the River Cities' Reader

Get 12 Reader issues mailed monthly for $48/year.

Old School Subscription for Your Support

Get the printed Reader edition mailed to you (or anyone you want) first-class for 12 months for $48.
$24 goes to postage and handling, $24 goes to keeping the doors open!

Click this link to Old School Subscribe now.



Help Keep the Reader Alive and Free Since '93!

 

"We're the River Cities' Reader, and we've kept the Quad Cities' only independently owned newspaper alive and free since 1993.

So please help the Reader keep going with your one-time, monthly, or annual support. With your financial support the Reader can continue providing uncensored, non-scripted, and independent journalism alongside the Quad Cities' area's most comprehensive cultural coverage." - Todd McGreevy, Publisher