Officers

President	1st VP	2nd VP	Treas	Sec'y	Legal Counsel
G. Lane	J. Bender	M. Welti	M. Engel	S. Mohandiss	T. Rosseland

Directors and Assistant Directors

ASFS	Danish Ladies	Icelandic	Norewegian Ladies	SAFG
A. Hänninen	K. Muhlhausen	E. Griffin	K. Green/td>	K. Green
L. Tervo	C. Mullins	T. Griffin	E. Røed

SACC	SWEA	VASA	Viking Club
M. Emanuelsson		D. Nordin	K. Nielsen
H. Söderstrom		D. Carlson

The officers kicked off the 2003 Festival with a weekend meeting on June 15, 2002 at Mikala Engel’s Lake Hartwell home. An action plan was formulated and proposed committee chairpersons were selected. The budget was made for 2500 visitors with the target of 3500 visitors. Many other decisions were made and most were implemented.

Denmark was the featured country. Jette Bender had a meeting at her home on July 21 with many of the key Danish volunteers in attendance. The main topics were entertainment, demonstrations, cultural, children’s room and the use of the patio at the Cobb Civic Center.

The Baldur Brass Band from Denmark was invited to return to the Festival, but they proposed that the SAS Brass Band come, which they did. Their conductor, Paul Holford was a highlight of the Festival with his personality and his performances with the Post Horn. The folk dancers from Ballerup, Denmark also came.

We agreed to host these entertainers during their ten-day stay in the Atlanta area. Eva Lindvig undertook the monumental job of locating places for the 83 people who came. It was a continually changing scenario but Eva did not falter and everyone was satisfied.

The opening hours were discussed and it was agreed to close at 7:00 pm on Saturday. Sonja began an inventory of festival items other than those stored at DFDS Transport.

George Lane had a breakfast meeting with the Consuls, who offered some good suggestions regarding the Festival. He also visited the NJ Scan Fest to observe how they conduct their festival.

The Board and Officers meetings were held at Johnny Nielsen’s office. The entrance fees were raised to $5.00 for adults and $4.00 for seniors/students. The exhibitor booth prices were increased by $20.00. Some exhibitor booths on the patio were sold but not as many as had been planned.

Maria Welti organized a Marketing committee for all activities relating to contacts with organizations outside of the Festival, including publicity, exhibitor booths, raffle and sponsors. A database of names was established. She also made most of the arrangements for the design and manufacture of T-shirts using a new Viking ship logo.

Kristin Green arranged for a Hans Christian Andersen exhibit from the Odense Museum in Denmark. It was located in the upper level meeting room with the genealogy section. Reijo Huoso was the guiding light for the 5K run. A pre-festival picnic was held on Sunday, March 23, 2003 at the Water Works Park in Atlanta. Some 200 people attended and all liked the food, live music and magician.

Poul Sorensen led a crew of builders, who constructed the Country House, a new venue for demonstrations and smaller group activities. Anni Møller provided the artistic painting of the House. Marjatta Söderlund again provided future projections for individuals based on melted tin readings.

Barbro and Sam Linden donated $2500 to fund the Jeffrey Scott Linden scholarship, which was to be awarded to one student. But two equally qualified candidates split the award; Anna Vilpo Jaskiewicz, a Finnish student at West Georgia State University and Hjordis Lara Hreindottir, an Icelandic student from the same school.

The lower level at the Cobb Civic Center was rearranged with the main stage on the west side instead of the north side. This gave more people a better view of the entertainers. The food houses were all located on the east side and the single beverage stand had 2 serving sides. The Country House was located on the east side also, at the north end near the main entrance.

Keld Nielsen put the program book together with Ed From. Some space was saved and the book was reduced to 32 pages. Each year the book quality improved. A tri-fold brochure was prepared and the cover portrayed Pjerrot, a character from the mime performances at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. This same theme was used on the posters and the cover of the program book. This was the first change in the cover since the 1996 Festival.

Attendance was 2200 with very good financial results. The invested funds had dropped to $31,000 due to the equity market situation.

Bob Reed was the MC on Sat. and Rene Welti and Mary Lou Seltzer on Sun. The returning entertainment included:

Scandinavian Festival Choir
Dickerson Middle School Jazz Band
Bjarne Andersen, singer

The new entertainment was:

SAS Brass Band from Copenhagen, Denmark
Ballerup Folk dancers from Denmark
Marion Barker, trombonist
Cecelia Österholm, from Sweden playing the nyckelharpa
Betty Ann Wylie, storyteller
Angelina Bellebuono, storyteller
Theater performance of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

The entertainment was on the main stage, in the outdoor tent and in the Country House. A transfer of flags was included in the closing ceremony on Sunday evening.

A critique meeting was held on May 20, 2003.