20 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Arrival, Canada’s top Festival features Haugaard /
Blum Band from Denmark
ABBA tribute band,
entertains at Scan Fest
ASTORIA — At the 50th
annual Astoria Scandina-
vian Midsummer Festival,
Arrival — Canada’s tribute
to ABBA — will play a
special show 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 17, at the
Clatsop County Fairgrounds
(92937 Walluski Loop).
Arena doors open at 7 p.m.
The band will play AB-
BA’s greatest hits, including
“Dancing Queen,” “Mama
Mia,” “Take a Chance on
Me,” “Knowing Me, Know-
ing You.”
This 50th anniversary
event requires a special
ticket: $15 general admis-
sion; $25 reserve seating.
The ticket includes
admission to the festival
after 5 p.m.. Parking is $2
per day, $5 for the weekend.
People who arrive before 5
p.m. will need to purchase
an $8 festival admission
wristband good for all three
days.
There will be a public
dance with live music by
Scandinavian Country im-
mediately after the concert.
Reserve seat tickets are on
sale at Finn Ware in Astoria,
general admission tickets
at the Liberty Theater Box
Office in Astoria until 5
p.m. Thursday, June 15.
After this date, tickets will
be on sale at the festival
admission table only.
The original ABBA
formed in Stockholm in
1968 and won the Eurovi-
sion song contest in 1974.
ABBA was the first
group from a non-En-
glish-speaking country
to achieve consistent
success in the charts of
English-speaking countries
and to spawn ABBA tribute
bands worldwide, accord-
ing to press materials. The
ASTORIA — The Haugaard
/ Blum Band, a Danish
band, will make six appear-
ances at the Astoria Scandi-
navian Midsummer Festival
held Friday through Sunday,
June 16 through 18, at the
Clatsop County Fairgrounds
(92937 Walluski Loop).
Admission to the festival
is $8 for all three days.
Details can be found at asto-
riascanfest.com.
Haugaard’s composi-
tions draw on the Danish
musical tradition he grew
up with, according to press
materials. The British music
magazine fROOTS wrote:
“Haugaard is a brilliant
fiddler, one of the very best
in the world.”
Blum has played
throughout Europe, and
from Canada to Japan. Us-
ing ancient songs and bal-
lads as a base, she reinvents
them with contemporary
gestures and mixes them
SUBMITTED PHOTO
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Harald Haugaard
Helene Blum
elegantly with her own
compositions.
The Haugaard / Blum
Band also consists of three
back-up musicians: Kirstine
Elise Pedersen on cello,
Mikkel Grue on guitar and
Sune Rahbek on percussion.
Haugaard and Blum were
recently named by the Ger-
many government as am-
bassadors for the European
Year of Cultural Heritage.
For more information
about the artists, visit har-
aldh.dk andheleneblum.dk.
Aallotar from Finland and Minnesota come to Astoria
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Arrival
original band dissolved in
1982 but will reform for an
upcoming 2017 project.
For more information
about the festival, visit
astoriascanfest.com.
ASTORIA — Aallotar, a band
whose two members hail from
Finland and Minnesota, will
perform at the Astoria Scan-
dinavian Midsummer Festival
5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday,
June 17; and 11 a.m., 12:30
p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Sunday,
June 18.
The festival — held Friday,
June 16, through Sunday, June
18 — will take place at the
Clatsop County Fairgrounds
(92937 Walluski Loop).
The band’s Saturday
performances will take place
at the fairground Exhibit Hall.
The first Sunday performance
will be held there during a spe-
cial church service; the second
and third at the fairgrounds
arena.
The band is a “transatlantic
collaboration of Finnish and
Finnish-American music in an
original ‘chamber-folk’ style,”
according to press materials,
SUBMITTED
Aallotar
consists of Sara Pajunen and
Teija Niku.
Ancestors of Sara Pajunen
and Teija Niku lived within
hours of each other in western
Finland, speaking the same
language, playing the same
music, living the same culture.
In the late 19th century,
Pajunen’s ancestors emigrated
to northern Minnesota; Niku’s
family remained in Finland.
Today, they explore a common
heritage in Finnish folk music,
while creating new sounds that
reflect their contemporary
cultures and various interests.
Festival admission is $8 for
all three days. Festival goers
will enjoy heritage, tradition,
food and fun, in addition to
Scandinavian-themed enter-
tainment.
For more information
about the festival, visit asto-
riascanfest.com.