About 70 or so booths and vendors were set up all through the park, including arts, crafts, food, pony rides, information and games. A Cub Scout group offered visitors a chance to play an ancient Viking game, Kubb, which has similarities to chess, croquet and horseshoes. The scouts and their leaders dressed in Viking attire, which complimented the theme of this year’s fest. The Swedish Fest Booth Director is Laura Liveoak.

Winners of this year’s Best Looking Viking Contest were: first place, Elijah English; second place, Brianna Saldana; and third place, Julia Peterson Cleckler. Tom Huett was the organizer and Head Viking. The Best Dressed Stores in town were Hair Design On Main (first place, $75), Marcus Insurance (second place, $50) and Thorsby Diner (third place, $25).

The Annual Car and Motorcycle Show took place in front of Thorsby High School with great success. Thorsby’s Mayor, Dearl Hilyer, is the organizer for this event but was unable to attend due to illness. His presence was greatly missed by everyone. Special thanks to Albert Schewe, Danielle and Chuck Easterling, Zack Hamm and Robert Height for stepping in for Hilyer on the Car and Motorcycle Show.

The Thorsby Museum was open from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. in its new location on the corner of Montgomery Avenue and Jones Street. The building is owned by Swedish Fest Committee Member Julia Wood. She is donating the use of the building to the town for use as a museum. Swedish Fest Committee Member Jane Sutlive has served as the museum hostess and local historian for many years. She was unable to attend on Saturday due to illness and was greatly missed. Carolyn Littleton and I (Tracia Bussey) hosted the museum. Another local historian, Lucille McFarland, hosted visitors at Helen Jenkins Chapel. She showed off the newly renovated building and told stories about Thorsby’s past.

The information table under the park pavilion was hosted by Swedish Fest Committee Member Kathy Johnson and Joan Johnson. Festival T-shirts, children’s Viking hats, Thorsby books, lapel pins and more were offered for sale.

The day ended with another successful festival to be remembered. It takes a lot of work all year for the committee to accomplish this kind of event. As the festival chairwoman for 12 years, I want to thank Thorsby’s mayor, town council, city employees, police department and fire department for their help and support. We can work all year, but without the cooperative effort from these people, we cannot have success.

–Tracia Bussey is a community columnist for The Clanton Advertiser. She can be reached at traciadbussey@gmail.com.