Festinord in Copenhagen

We set off for Festinord - the young adult conference for Scandinavia - on the same road we traveled to go to Sogne Fjord with Erin. Instead of exiting we stayed on the road which soon led us to the world's longest tunnel. It is over 15 miles long. There are three blue and green lighted widespots in the tunnel, otherwise it is just one long shortcut under the mountain.

 

Two things changed when we finally left Norway and got into Sweden: first the land flattened out into beautiful rolling green hills and secondly the speed limits increased to 120km/hr. The fastlane speed was more in the neighborhood of 140 - about 84mph!

About Festinord - the word means "party in the north" and that is what it was in one sense. There were dances every night but Thursday. The themes changed from day to day and you could dress to the theme or not. Over 650 people from 26 nations attended. There were sports competitions, Futbol for men and women, team dodgeball like in the movie of the same name, dance and singing groups were formed so they could prepare what turned out to be very professional performances, service projects were carried out, classes were offered by a variety of teachers. Devotionals were held each morning, about 100 bicycles were available for loan. Finally, the food was outstanding and seemed to never stop. We were busy slicing bread as early as 7am or making sandwiches for 650 at 11pm.

On Wednesday we took a cultural tour with most of the 650 young adults. We are posing with Simon, one of our men from Bergen, at the Frederiksborg Castle outside of Copenhagen.

It is old' (1736) beautiful, and free to the public. If you want to see the famous religious painting of Carl Bloch the cost is only $10.

We joined a mob of people on a day that was over 80 degrees F and very humid.

The castle from the gardens out beyond the lake.

The moat and its bloom of algae surrounded the castle.

We cooled off in our bus on the journey to downtown Copenhagen, where we were treated to a "first" for Denmark at "The Cathedral of our Lady." Our all LDS group filled the cathedral to hear the Festinord choir and one of the General Authorities of the church speak in this inspiring setting.

This classical building replaced the original, which was bombarded by the British during the Napoleonic Wars.(Early 1800's) The architect of the new building followed classic Roman and Greek traditions but the Danish sculpter Thorvaldsen put the finishing touches on the interior with sculptures of eleven of the original Apostles plus the Apostle Paul lining the walls. At the back of the Altar is a sculpture favored by Mormons of the risen Kristus, calmly inviting all to come unto him - very different from the practice of the day which portrayed a suffering and bloody Jesus on the cross.

Peter, holding the keys of authority.

The Kristus with our Festinord Choir singing in the foreground. See YouTube "This is the Christ -Festinord 2012"

Renate, also from Bergen, was in the choir.



On the following day we accompanied one of several busloads of people to the Copenhagen Denmark Temple.

We attended a session with our buddy Arju our YSA president.

Kathy, second from the left, is also one of our Bergen women. She is getting ready for the Cultural Evening performance.

We were impressed with the quality of the program put together in three days by these talented men and women.

Included in the cast was Sandra - also of Bergen. She is a talented dancer.

The cast posing after the performance.



Large group meetings and devotionals were held in the Farum Arena just around the back of our main campus.

The final event was a dinner and formal dance held at a very nice conference center about 20 minutes from campus. One of our jobs was to decorate for "the prom." It took hours to set the tables, fold napkins, and set out the little touches of class.

Almost 700 attended the dinner, dance, awards presentation and final evening together.

This year's winning football team receives the cup.

Tomas Kofod a well known Danish actor and singer performs during dinner. He sang some Broadway show tunes.

Heidi and Thomas Ringheim were the master planners. They and their committee organized over 200 volunteers to pull off a fantastic six days of positive and enjoyable activities in Denmark. We joined about twenty couples like ourselves to help out with anything from food prep to security. It was a week we will always remember.