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That evening brought the final phase, a festival concert held at Fayal Hall, with the participation of the Chisholm band, the mixed choruses joined into one massive group, the Virginia band, the Eveleth mixed chorus, the Ely band, the Hibbing band, interspersed with trumpet solos by Jacob S. Saari, a brief speech by H. Anias and another brief speech by Judge Vivian Prince.
At the end of the concert it was decided that the Ely Finns would be hosts for the midsummer festival the following year, and from this grew the custom that the last number on the program was the naming of the site for the next year's festival. When some community was suggested and that proposal met with general approval, some of the persons from that community who were present were appointed to take care of the matter. In practice, those persons thus designated usually gathered about them others interested in the project and thus went ahead with the preparations for the following festival, generally of quite elaborate proportions, in the pattern established by the first, Eveleth festival. In fact, Eveleth was host on several subsequent occasions. One, held in 1909, brought a loss, caused by a split apparent already in the Hibbing festival of 1907 and leading to the complete `pruning' in the Duluth festival of 1908. The concept of these festivals, however, proved strong enough to survive this difficult period. It also survived the 1930s, the depression decade, and in the early 1940s it even experienced an upsurge, so that Eveleth's festival in 1943 still brought out throngs to dedicate themselves to their Finnish ideals at a moment when those ideals were least able to manifest themselves. It was in 1943 that the Juhannusjulkaisu appeared completely in English, with the exception of a festival poem in Finnish by Adolf Lundquist. in honor of the 40th anniversary of these festivals. The receipts from that festival were turned over to the American Red Cross, with the hope that the money could be used for aiding the Finns, who had fallen into a difficult military situation, which had necessitated cessation of the activities of the Finnish relief committees in this country.
Ten years later, in 1953, Eveleth was host to the 50th, jubilee celebration of this midsummer festival. At this time the executive committee was made up of Matthew Lahti, chairman, Jacob Hill, vice-chairman, George R. Rasula, secretary, John Tihkuri, assistant secretary, Martin Flom, treasurer, and members-at-large, Mrs. J. Jarvey and Mrs. M. Kivistö. The Duluth Herald (2 July 1953) estimated the attendance at this festival to have been about 6,000 persons. The traditional evening concert closing the festival was still devoted largely to Finnish music.
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