FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sheila Romine SpringFest Committee [email protected] 302‐897‐9915
SpringFest at Fort Christina Sunday, April 17 from 12:00-5:00pm
Bring family and friends! Celebrate Spring on the Christina River and Colonial Life in the Delaware Valley with food, music, entertainment, children’s games and more!
Learn about the culture, heritage and contributions of Delaware’s earliest settlers (the Lenape, Swedes, Finns, Dutch and English) through fun and informative demonstrations in First State National Historical Park—Fort Christina and Old Swedes locations—at the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard, in the Copeland Maritime Center and on board the Tall Ship of Delaware, Kalmar Nyckel.
Tentative Schedule of Activities:
12:00-1:00pm Landing Ceremony with Music and Reenactors at Fort Christina National Historical Park
1:00-4:00pm Tours and Activities at Copeland Maritime Center, Old Swedes National Historic Site and on Kalmar Nyckel
4:00-4:45pm Music Finale at Old Swedes National Historic Site
No entrance fee for Landing Ceremony and many activities, but some activities will have a nominal fee.
“This one‐of‐a‐kind event has been designed creatively to reach all cultures and communities in the Delaware Valley,” said Janet Anderson, Chair of the SpringFest Committee. “We warmly extend our invitation. Come out to Seventh Street Peninsula on April 17 and explore the rich heritage that began here in present‐day Wilmington, Delaware.”
The SpringFest logo celebrates Spring with a bouquet of flowers to represent the bouquet of nationalities that settled in the Delaware Valley, each bringing its own contributions. The Lenape Canna Lily symbolizes the pre‐colonial settlers who contributed beaver pelts and help to the early traders at New Sweden Colony. The Linnaea borealis honors the Swedes, the first European colonists who sailed in 1638 on the Kalmar Nyckel to the New World, building Fort Christina and Old Swedes Church in their young colony. The Lily of the Valley is the national flower of Finland, a part of Sweden in 1638. The Finns, also sailed on the Kalmar Nyckel, bringing their log cabin technology to New Sweden Colony. A tulip represents the Dutch, settling the area in 1631 and controlling the area from 1655 until infusion of the English settlers, shown as a Tudor rose, which led to formation of the First State, the Diamond State. A heterogeneous colony from the start, many other nationalities have joined the bouquet in the Delaware Valley adding to its sweet aroma.
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The SpringFest Committee is composed of members from its collaborating organizations—New Sweden Centre, Old Swedes Foundation, Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, Delaware Swedish Colonial Society, and New Sweden Alliance.
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