Location: Minneapolis, MN
Venue: Leamington Hotel and Loring Park
Finnaffair, an annual festival held in the Twin Cities, provided the template on which the first festival was constructed. The festival’s central location, the Leamington Hotel, included talks, exhibits, a market, a dinner dance; auxiliary sites expanded the program to include sports, crafts, worship, and concerts. Representatives to a formal meeting established a confederation of clubs with a constitution and by-laws and a national board consisting of three representatives from the east, three from the Midwest, and three from the west. Moving the festival across the country to a different location each year began immediately. Pictured on the left, here the committee members who will carry the FinnFest USA banner to Fitchburg, MA. Tarmo Hannula, FinnFest USA national board member and Chair of the 1984 festival on the right. See more info in the FinnFest History (PDF file).

A Leamington Hotel dinner, catered by Soile Anderson, permitted the public to meet Robert Selvala, the newly elected first FinnFest USA president, seated here in the middle.