The 2025 Bishop Hill Midsommar Music Festival is a family-friendly event occurring on Saturday June 21. Highlights of this festival includes free concerts in the park, a Swedish Maypole celebration, and much more. Please bring a lawn chair and join us as we celebrate this Swedish holiday in historic Bishop Hill, Illinois.

Celebrating Midsommar, one of the two most popular holidays in Sweden – the other being Christmas – is a very ancient practice, dating back to pre-Christian times. It has its roots in Pagan rituals to welcome summer and the season of fertility. In Sweden, Midsommar festivals have been around for at least 500 years. Even in agrarian times, people in Sweden welcomed summertime by decorating their houses and farm tools with foliage and raising tall May poles to dance around.

The free concerts at the village park gazebo will begin at 10 a.m. This year’s lineup includes Black Hawk Pipes and Drums, Chloe Finch, Orion Community Band, and the Norwegian Bachelor Farmers. Immediately following the musical performances at 4 p.m., everyone is invited to decorate the Maypole with flowers and to join the procession. The procession will begin in the park and end at the Colony School where visitors can join in the Maypole dancing and have refreshments provided by the Bishop Hill Vasa Lodge. No experience is required to join in the dancing.

The Midsommar Music Festival is sponsored by the Bishop Hill Heritage Association, Bishop Hill State Historic Site, Bishop Hill Old Settler’s Association, Vasa National Archives, Bishop Hill Vasa Lodge #683, and area businesses. Regional Media is our major media sponsor. Funding provided by the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation, Vasa National Archives, Bishop Hill Vasa Lodge #683, and the Illinois Arts Council. For directions or more information, visit www.visitbishophill.com, or call 309-927-3899.

2025 MIDSOMMAR MUSIC SCHEDULE
SATURDAY June 21
Schedule for the day includes the following FREE performances at the center of the parkin front of the gazebo:
– MAIN STAGE –
Black Hawk
Pipes & Drums 10 am
Chloe Finch 11:30 a.m.
Orion Community Band 1:30 p.m.
Norwegian Bachelor Farmers 3 pm
***Maypole dressing begins at 4 pm and procession to the Colony School begins just after it is dressed.
Maypole dancing at Colony School at 4:30 p.m., followed by supper provided by the Bishop Hill Vasa Lodge