Every year, sometime in late spring, Michael Olesen starts to get antsy.

It's the same feeling he's had since childhood; an anticipation that builds as June approaches. Back then, his mother would release him into the streets of downtown Geneva and he'd spend the magically long, sun-soaked days running loose until the sky finally went dark sometime after nine. 

Now he's a bit older, owns Stockholm’s Restaurant & Brewery on State Street, and chairs the board of the Geneva Chamber of Commerce. But that youthful feeling hasn't gone anywhere.

"Swedish Days is our Christmas season," he said. "It is our best week of the year, hands down."

It’s clear that he means it — from a personal perspective, a business perspective, and community perspective. In a region full of summer festivals, Swedish Days, Geneva's multi-day festival that runs June 24–28 this year, has become a genuine civic tradition. 

It’s the kind of institution that locals return to year after year, and rally behind when it faces challenges.

The story of how Swedish Days became what it is today, as one might expect for a 76-year saga, is not particularly linear. And it’s full of surprises. 

The initiative started in 1949, not as a festival but as a retail promotion. The Geneva Chamber of Commerce called it Geneva Days: a midsummer shopping event designed to lure customers back into stores as consumer goods returned to American shelves after wartime rationing.

Children under 12 got free matinee tickets at the Geneva Theater, where they were often dropped off so their parents could shop in peace. 

It was functional and community-oriented, but not exactly the stuff of civic legend.

Then a man named Bill Sanders, who chaired the chamber's special events committee, looked around at the community and made a suggestion. Geneva was home to a significant number of residents of Swedish descent — in many households, grandparents still spoke Swedish to one another. Why not lean into that?

The Geneva Republican newspaper encapsulated the vision: business owners would wear Swedish costumes, store windows would display Swedish antiques, street decorations would go up in Swedish colors, and restaurants would feature Swedish food. 

The atmosphere, the paper wrote, would be "as Swedish as the merchants of Geneva can make it."

Swedish Days was born.

The identity held, though not without its twists and turns. In the mid-1950s, a dairy sponsorship led to the festival’s rebranding as “Butter Days” for a few years. A farm show was folded in, then a dog show, then finally the beloved parade.

After a few years of struggling to maintain a cohesive identity, the chamber brought back the traditional Swedish Days name in 1958, anchored it in June to celebrate the summer solstice, and leaned once again into the Swedish heritage that had made it distinct. Organizers added Swedish dances, auctions, style shows, art exhibits, and a display of Swedish literature at the library. 

The festival evolved over the subsequent years, its momentum and popularity growing methodically. By 1972, the festival had expanded to six days with new performances, contests, beer gardens, and more. 

It was during this era that Swedish Days truly cemented itself into the fabric of the community.

The festival's roots manifest differently now than they did in 1950. The world has changed. A corn dog, as Johanna Patterson is quick to point out, is not something you’d typically find in a Scandinavian market. It’s now a Swedish Days staple. 

Patterson grew up in Geneva, spent time on the chamber staff helping produce the festival from the inside, and remains a dedicated advocate. She's seen Swedish Days from every angle: as a kid running the streets, as a communications director managing the logistics, and now as a Geneva resident watching her own children disappear into the crowd the same way she once did.

Patterson says the Swedish connection is still very much alive, even if it’s not the focus it once was. The Swedish American Choir opens the festival every year. The Nordic Folk Dancers of Chicago perform on the courthouse lawn on Saturday. Swedish flags wave across the city each June.

"There's Swedish food, little bits and pieces of Swedish influence throughout," she said. "And we want to both keep with our heritage and also still appeal to what people most want to do and see."

Considering that it’s a big, multifaceted event, sometimes it helps to know where to look.

"The first food item I get at Swedish Days is at noon at the Methodist church booth, and I get a Swedish ham sandwich," Olesen said. "And that is the first item that I get every year, and have done so for more years than I can remember."

Swedish Days has consistently evolved by absorbing new events, dropping old ones, shifting locations, incorporating different organizations, and trying new things. 

“When I was growing up here it started on Tuesday at 6PM, and the stores all stayed open until midnight with special sales — it was called Midnight Madness,” said Terry Emma, Executive Director at the Geneva History Museum. “Then Thursday started Sidewalk Sales through Saturday, with different merchandise that was held back and only brought out on Thursday — so you had to go back and check it out.” 

Despite the ongoing evolution, one thing about the festival hasn't changed: its fundamental role as a source of fun and community unique to Geneva. 

"I think what really stays is entertainment, bringing people together, and bringing people down to the heart of our town to see what we're all about and all that we have to offer," Patterson said.

The fun and games are an essential ingredient, but there’s a philanthropic component to the festival that may not be readily apparent to everyone who attends. 

"The booths on Third Street are run by local charities. And so that's just something — when you talk about how it's evolved — the involvement and the inclusion of more community members has been something that has always been a goal, and it's really cool to experience as a visitor or as a local,” Patterson said.

The pace of the modern world can feel overwhelming. Swedish Days, and the nostalgia it evokes for many, can serve as a reminder to slow down and live in the moment. 

Patterson remembers Swedish Days as the spark that ignited the summer social scene. It was a scheduled opportunity to reconnect with neighbors in a town-square style environment. Locals relied on it. 

"Back before social media, meeting at Swedish Days a couple weeks after summer had begun was our social media," she said. "What have you been up to? Did you get a tan? Have you seen so-and-so?"

Her kids do the same thing now. They gather their friends and head downtown, sometimes hanging out all day.

The multi-generational pull is, if anything, one of the festival's most durable qualities. Patterson talks about watching the Grand Parade as a child with her parents, siblings, and grandfather, a World War II veteran who made a point of teaching the kids to stand for the flag, especially the ones with gold trim. 

"One of the wonderful things about Swedish Days is we have something for everyone. You can be 90 to 9 months,” Olesen said. “As a kid I was running around doing one thing, as a teenager doing something else, as a young adult enjoying Swedish Days in a different manner."

For some, the festival is how they fell for Geneva in the first place. Olesen has seen it more than once from his perch at Stockholm's.

"People have bought a house here and come into Stockholm's and say, 'Yeah, I was here for this festival, and ended up deciding that we wanted to live here,'" he said. "Swedish Days is so much bigger than any one person. It really takes a community to make it happen."

That community-centric quality took on the role of superhero earlier this year, when the chamber announced the Grand Parade would be skipped in 2026. Within days, a group of downtown business owners had organized themselves to rescue it. 

By the end of the week, a revised permit was in. The parade was back on. 

The 76th Annual Swedish Days kicks off Wednesday, June 24, and runs through Sunday, June 28. The Chamber announced the full entertainment schedule at the end of May.

Here's what else to expect:

And that’s just a sampling; there’s a lot more planned. The full schedule and updates can be found here.

There's a line near the end of this short film about Swedish Days produced by the Geneva History Museum that captures the essence of the festival: "For a short time in June, everyone is a little bit Swedish."

Some folks embrace the Swedish part, some likely don’t care one way or the other. But the "everyone" part is universal. 

Whether you’re an elderly Geneva lifer or a fresh transplant, it’s tough to resist getting into the Swedish Days spirit once the final week of June rolls around. 

Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] with questions or comments.

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