2nd Finglish trip August 2005 #2
Every fifth year American Finns and Canadian Finns organize a joint cultural festival in a place comfortably close to the US-Canadian border. In 2005 the Finn Grand Fest was held in Marquette Michigan USA. In addition, both groups organize their own festivals each year. Marquette is the most populated city of the Upper Peninsula with 21.000 inhabitants. U.P. has the largest Finnish population outside of Finland, with 16 percent of Yoopers having Finnish heritage.
We set up our field studio with a backdrop and a flash light, spent four days taking photos of participants of the Fest. Our goal was to take 100 portraits. You can look at the result on this website. We also did a query of their Finnish roots. The material has not been published previously.
One of the events of the festival was the World's Largest Sauna. A huge tent with a sauna stove and benches was built next to the sports hall. 600 people took löylyt there.
Next Nisula, Tapiola, Pelkie Michigan USA