This is a year of many firsts for the 37-year-old Scandinavian Festival, which will be held April 16 and 17 at California Lutheran University. They include the following:

Danish interns provide 21st century marketing edge

The Scandinavian Festival’s first interns, CLU business administration students Dorthe (June) Clemensen and Michelle Frausing of Denmark, are bringing 21st century marketing techniques to the event. Through the university’s tri-continental degree program, they took classes at Shanghai Finance University and Copenhagen Business College and are now finishing their degrees at CLU. Drawn to the festival that celebrates their homeland, they asked the Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation if they could assist with the festival for their Event Planning course internship. They created a Facebook page and linked it to Twitter and helped arrange for presale tickets to be sold online for the first time. They also designed magnets with the dates of next year’s festival that will be distributed at the festival, secured radio advertising spots and participated in all the planning sessions.

Festival performer visits schools

A Scandinavian Festival performer is presenting assemblies in local schools this year in advance of the event for the first time. Storyteller, singer and musician Ross Sutter will take his act to three schools in Moorpark and Thousand Oaks. The school assemblies are slated from 8:15 to 9 a.m. Thursday, April 14, at Wildwood Elementary School in Thousand Oaks; 1:45 to 2:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14, at Weathersfield Elementary School in Thousand Oaks; and at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Friday, April 15, at Flory Academy of Sciences and Technology in Moorpark.

New gammal dans extends celebration into evening

A gammal dans, or old-time dance, has been added to the festival this year, extending the celebration into the evening from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, April 16. A variety of performers will play old-time Scandinavian music as people dance the snua, schottiche, polska and hambo.

Rock musician and classic violinist to perform as duo

Kaivama: Finnish-American Excavators is a new act to the Scandinavian Festival. Sara Pajunen is a classically trained violinist. Jonathan Rundman is a troubadour songwriter who plays a variety of instruments and has collected raves from Billboard, The New York Times and other publications. Together they put a unique spin on traditional and Nordic tunes. Their first album is slated to come out in June.

For more information on any of these stories, contact Karin Grennan at kgrennan@callutheran.edu or (805) 493-3512.