This past weekend we celebrated Valborg in Sweden (Walpurgis Night) by lighting big bonfires. The local traditions might vary a bit, but in Nässjö the local Scout club marched with torches from the city square to the bonfire, accompanied by the Salvation Army’s local brass band. More about that later. A couple of days before my trip, my brother sent a photo of a poster for “Våryra 2017”, an event on the Saturday by the town square in Nässjö, where Lisa Ajax was playing in the town square. The event was advertised using one of the photos from the photoshoot I did with her back in December. I got in touch with her team, and told them I would be in Nässjö and that it would be fun to photograph her performance, and that was how I ended up shooting on stage. It was great fun, and she drew a big crowd.
Lisa Ajax playing in NässjöA familiar face in the big crowd.I was perched at the edge of the stage, to try and get a shot of both Lisa and the crowd.If you know where to look you can spot one of my nieces behind Lisa Ajax.Lisa Ajax drew a big crowd in Nässjö with the most ecstatic fans in the front row.Jonathan with his eldest daughter and her new prize, a signed poster by Lisa Ajax. The Våryra poster has my photo, which was fun to see.Vanja and little sister with Dalmatian face paint, acting the part.There is a flight of stairs outside my brother’s work place, which restricted the surrounding lights and created this beautiful light. Here big sister.Big sister, Vanja, Maja and Middle sister performing on stage.Big sister, on the same stage where Lisa stood, but a couple of hours earlier.Big is creative and likes to come up with things to do. This photo was her suggestion, it is quite theatrical.Maja the tiger.Taking care of five kids filled with sugar and ice cream is not easy, but Sandra makes it work.Vanja the dalmatiner climbing on the stage.Kajsa the cat enjoying a bit of rural quiet.Amy the pony is learning how to pull a wagon. The first step is to get her used to wearing a harness. Here Sandra is steering, and Jonathan is both making sure that the “wagon” does not get stuck somewhere and frighten Amy, but also adding a bit of resistance. #ruralgymOn our way back to the house.Middle sister and her friend Maja driving on the green electric car.One of my favourite photos from this weekend. Maja and Middle sister are driving towards me as I lay down on the ground to get a good angle. This time they managed to break in time, but the photo after they ran over my leg.They soon realised that I was a moving target, and they came up with the plan that one of them would run and hold me still, so the other one could more easily run me over.Their hold-and-run-over plan worked a bit too well, so to distract them I suggested we should try and get Olav (the dog) into the photo.Sandra wanted to see how heavy her new wagon was, which resulted in this photo.Olav taking a ride with his best friends.
Sunday was Valborg, and I was woken up at 7:00 by Little sister and her friend who were playing in the living room. I was really sleepy, but they were having too much fun for me to tell them to stop. Instead I got up and started going through Saturday’s photos. We made a Frozen music video back in 2016 with Middle Sister, and the other girls wanted to do a new one, so we decided to do Vaiana video. In the photo below little sister is putting together a magical medallion to wear for the video.
Little sister preparing props for the music video.I only took a few photos during our video recording, this was one of them. Little sister high up in one of their trees.The three sisters running in the field. One of the last scenes for our music video. I did not know the song before, so they had to help out with ideas and suggestions for what we should include.
The Vaiana music video is at the bottom of this blog post.
Time to light the torches for the Valborg march. Middle sister and Maja.Sandra and Little sister, who enjoyed her new light sabre.“You should hold it at this angle”.Kent Nilsson leading the march. I walked alongside them, and here the houses opened up to let through a bit of sun.Jonathan marching with the Salvation Army.Big sister with her borrowed hat.A new day, and the last few hours before it was time to head off to the train. The cows had been locked up all winter, and today they were finally let out into the sun. They were so happy! They were also a bit surprised at the amount of spectators. Here one of the old cows eyeing a couple of old ladies.
Here is the Vaiana music video that we made:
As always a lot of fun to visit my brother and his family!
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