Kodiak to hold Scandinavian culture festival

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Kodiak will hold a Scandinavian festival next week.

The multi-day event will include regional foods, folk tunes, and stories about local families. Filmmaker Stefan Quinth will screen some of the documentaries he’s recorded around the island.

Quinth, who was born in Sweden, is part of a company called Camera Q. One of his short documentaries tells the story of a Uyak Bay resident, Jerry Johnson, whose father came to the United States as a teenager.

Before Kodiak, Quinth says Johnson lived in Chicago and worked on cars belonging to gangster Al Capone.

“He was a wonderful mechanic and Jerry said that my father could put his hand on the fender of the car and, just from the vibrations, he could tell what was wrong with the car, so every time Al Capone was leaving his dungeons – all his cars were in the basement – Jerry’s father had to go through the car, make sure it worked.”

Quinth says Johnson ended up on Kodiak Island after Al Capone went to jail.

Another family story Quinth mentions is one from Old Harbor.

He says he visited the cemetery there and noticed that one gravestone listed Sweden as the deceased’s birthplace. He says he knocked on the nearest door and the woman in the house directed him to the home of the deceased’s son, Victor Carlson junior.

“And he was talking about his background and his story and his father and he said he never mentioned Sweden. Ever. No culture. Nothing. He was never interested to teach us anything about his background. And he said I always wanted to know something about Scandinavia.”

Next week’s festival will give Kodiak residents the chance to learn a little bit about Scandinavian culture. The festival kicks off Sunday with folk music and traditional songs at the library.