Drawing visitors and vendors from throughout the Northeast US for thirty-five years, Scandinavian Fest is the largest all-Nordic festival in the US. A true Nordic-only event, ScanFest is a heritage festival to celebrate and promote the cultures, traditions, and current life of the Nordic regions & peoples of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden with wide variety of traditional foods (as well as customary festival fare for the less adventurous) plus a wide variety of handcraft items and imported gifts by over fifty vendors.
The Fest is traditionally held on the Sunday of (US) Labor Day weekend. Those interested in learning more about their Nordic heritage and anyone curious about things Scandinavian are invited to sample what's at ScanFest: good food, good works, good shows, good people, and good times.
Five stages of continuous entertainment throughout the day feature music & dance ranging from traditional Nordic folk to classical to jazz to contemporary world music by a variety of accomplished and exceptional emerging talent. There's even a separate stage and a special activities area for kids, as well as a field arena and combat/contest area. All that, plus demonstrators, encampments, Norse combat, Viking ships, talks, demos, handcrafts, and much more.
The event is held at the NJ Vasa Park, 1 Wolfe Road, Budd Lake, NJ, 07828. It's an easy day-trip from most Northeast locations. Simply take I-80 Westbound in NJ to X-26 onto US Route 46 WEST (twd. Hackettstown). Follow US46 West for 3 miles to the first traffic light after Budd Lake at Wolfe Road. Left onto Wolfe Road & 1/4 mile to Vasa Park on the right.
ScanFest is produced by Scandinavian Fest, Inc., an independent, NJ non-profit educational corporation with 501(c)3 status. It’s neither a fundraiser for nor an affiliate of any organization but exists solely to celebrate the traditions. Excepting hired set-up labor, ScanFest is organized and staffed entirely by volunteers.
Dedicated to preserving the heritage and history of the railroads of New Jersey through the restoration, preservation, interpretation and operation of historic railroad equipment and artifacts, the museum is open Sundays, April thru October.
The Millstone Scenic Byway includes eight historic districts along the D&R Canal, an oasis of preserved land, outdoor recreation areas in southern Somerset County
Part of the Morristown National Historic Park, the formal walled garden, 200-foot wisteria-covered pergola, mountain laurel allee and North American perennials garden was designed by local landscape architect Clarence Fowler.
Even today, if you needed a natural hideout—a really good one—Jonathan’s Woods could work.
The Jacobus Vanderveer house is the only surviving building associated with the Pluckemin encampment.
