Scandinavian Festival

The Scandinavian Festival in Junction City (www.scandinavianfestival.com) was a bit of a let-down. I had much higher expectation than a bunch of food and trinket vendors, half of which had nothing to do with Scandinavia (Italian food and miscellaneous toys).
My hope was to have something very kid friendly and "full-bodied". It appears to be a financial constraint that hampers the organizers (I'm sure they would do more if the resources were there).
The dancers were very talented and what food that was authentic was well made - but the general feel was that it was a good place for retirees to hang out and putter about.
My money-no-object festival would have:

vendors hawking their wares from themed booths (lets be honest viking era stuff is far more entertaining than modern Scandinavia [McDonald's anyone???]). I want a guy wandering around selling trollkors and Mjolnir amulets (trollkors are iron troll-crosses to protect you from the trolls and Mjolnir was Thor's hammer).
And to that effect I want several folks wandering around in troll masks (perferably slightly dorky or cartoony so as not to scare the kids).
Next, they seriously needs a whole section of vendors selling Jul themed stuff (Chirstmas). Where are the Gladelig Jul signs? Don't these guys know how important Christmas in Scandinavia is??? Denmark has Jul eve and two full days of Jul recognized as official holidays! Two full days man! So there should be a whole "Christmas in Scandinavia section. Import nisse trinkets (elves), kravlenisse cutouts, and where are the julboks (straw goats)??? This tradition type of stuff would fly off the shelves!
That brings up something else - the language! Menus should be in English (of course) but also their themed language. That is what gives it authenticity. If I can walk away knowing a little more that when I got there, that is priceless!
And where is the UFF DA! and hygge!?! That is serious culture!
They also need to have sample vendors - vendors who sell tiny samples of the more bold cuisine of scandinavia like lutefisk, brown cheese, fermented shark, sheep's head etc. etc. That would really be tasting Scandinavia.
Oh and smorgasbrod anyone? A nice deli stand could whip this up easy! Just break out the rye bread and cold meats.
Back to Jul - I want pebbernodder and all those other good Jul cookies! Tradition states that you should have several types of cookies to offer your guests so that no one leaves without eating at least a little something (otherwise the good luck/hygge may leave with them - thus the pebbernodder, a cookie so small that anyone can eat at least one).
Recipes - vendors and booths and such should be giving out recipes for free - we want to share the culture. Speaking of - why was no one selling Æbleskiver (aebleskiver if you want to google it) pans? My wife bought one for me years ago at a camping store. If they had one then THE Scandinavian Festival should have them! Goodness!
One more thing - there should be a live play of Beowulf or something put on by the local high school. They could charge admission (I'd happily pay a few bucks per person) for an hour summary of Beowulf for my kids to watch. If you had 30 teenagers total (actors and stagehands) and they put on two shows a day and had a hundred people in the audience average for each show, for the four days of the fest...
That would get the kids about $10 bucks each per show. Get your economics class in on setting this up, fine tune your profit margin, sell wood replica's of Beowulf's sword Hrunting, etc etc. My son loves stories where he can pick out good guys and bad guys, a high school rendition of Beowulf would be perfect for this.

Anyhow - that would be a great start - maybe throw in some more decorations and such. The 50th fest is in 2010 so I'll try to put my money where my mouth is and see what happens - and to anyone who wants to use any of these ideas to make the fest better, "please do!"

end rant :)