By Mary Drew at Pasty Central (Mdrew) on Saturday, June 29, 2013 - 07:54 am:
We started the week with FinnFest/Bridgefest photos and once I saw these pictures featured here today, I knew I had to end the week with FinnFest photos, too.
Melanie Hakala Rossi was in attendance at the Toivola Juhannus, on the shores of Agate Beach, celebrating summer solstice the Finnish way. Which in this case is lighting a large kokko (bonfire).
Here is what Melanie had to say about the event:
"The crowd at the kokko was amazing, I talked to several of the Sami people. For many, it was their first time in America. They were very impressed with the event and the hospitality of the local people. One man told me he was very nervous just before the trip, he was worried about his English. He spoke Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and English...his English was perfect!
I was there with friends from out of town, they said they felt like they were walking 2 feet off the ground the whole evening. Hats off to the Toivola Fire Dept. and all the volunteers that worked almost 2 years on this, they did an awesome job!"
Thanks for the photos, Melanie and the account of actually being right there in the midst of the crowd of people.
Rumor has it, there was somewhere around 1000 people that attended that kokko. Pretty amazing, indeed! Wonder how many have stayed around for today's 
