Scandinavian Festival

Downtown businesses were closing up, as the new Interstate 5 bypassed Junction City, diverting most of the traffic going through town on Oregon Route 99.

He considered and discarded several possibilities before settling on the most obvious, a celebration of the city's very real but very dormant Scandinavian heritage.

In August 1961 the first annual Scandinavian Festival opened in temporary booths in downtown Junction City.

Since 1961, the city has attracted visitors nationally to the downtown area, which is transformed into an old world town for the occasion.

Traditional Scandinavian food includes vandbakkelser (chocolate dipped yum puffs), Æbleskiver, Swedish meatballs and Lefse.

As soon as the festival committee discovered this, they were asked to change the booth to match the theme, leading to an awkward—and unsuccessful—attempt to camouflage the giant lemon behind traditional Scandinavian decorations.