POULSBO — In years past, Lodge members would sit on the Sons of Norway deck in downtown Poulsbo on a warm (or sometimes cold) May day, drinking coffee. Then, one would turn to another and say, we’d better get those flags up.

Every year before Viking Fest, now in its 44th year and happening this weekend, Sons of Norway members would raise the flags of Scandinavian countries, according to member Barb Mitchusson. Last year the city re-dedicated Liberty Park as Murial Iverson Williams Waterfront Park, and raised the flags in style with the Lodge’s Leikarringen dancers (Norwegian traditional dancers) in their bunads (traditional rural clothing).

Perhaps as a new tradition, the dancers returned this year to the park and entertained the crowd May 12, while Boy Scout Troop 1577 raised the flags of Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Canada, the U.S., and even the Sami people, the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia.

The dancers, Scouts, local officials and interested passers-by enjoyed a warm May day, which hopefully continues into next weekend’s Viking Fest.