Selskap

On Sunday, June 23, 2024, at 2:00pm, in the Betty Strong Encounter Center auditorium, the group Selskap will present a program of Scandinavian Love Songs. Songs of arranged marriages, May-December marriages and the story of mail order brides from Sioux City for the Norwegian bachelors in Lincoln County, South Dakota!

Selskap members include Tom Weisbecker – harmonica, mandolin, and guitar; Ron Johnson – the box and vocals; Barbara Sabella – guitar and vocals; and Bill Peterson – fiddle. They play every June at the Midsummer Celebration at Dalesburg Lutheran Church in Clay County, South Dakota. The Swedes there have been celebrating Midsummer since 1868 when the 1st Swedish settlers came there, many of them passing through Sioux City on the way west to claim land under the Homestead Act.