Geneva Chamber president: ‘I do not intend to cancel Swedish Days’

After the big buildup that Geneva’s iconic Swedish Days festival was in jeopardy without city funding, a meeting last week resulted in not much — publicly, anyway.

Chamber Treasurer Susan Huang took the city council to task at its Jan. 20 meeting, asserting that its festivals were at risk without a financial commitment from the city.

The Chamber gets a portion of the city’s hotel-motel tax for promotions and advertising of its festivals.

Chamber board President Michael Olesen said a Thursday, Jan. 29, meeting between city officials and the Chamber was intended to arrive at “a number” they could both agree on.

It appears nothing was settled — except that Swedish Days will go on this year, Olesen said.

Chamber representatives met with City Administrator and Alex Voigt and Economic Development Director Cathleen Tymoszenko, Olesen said.

“We outlined what (we) would like to see,” Olesen said. “They were gathering information. I do not intend to cancel Swedish Days.”

City officials were unavailable to comment. City spokesman Kevin Stahr said in an email that he would reach out to Voigt on Monday.

According to the Chamber’s 990 tax filings as a 501(c)4, it lost $463,000 in revenue from 2023 to 2024. In 2024, it also spent nearly $500,000 more than it took in, with revenue of $1.26 million and expenses of $1.6 million, records show.

Olesen characterized the chamber’s cash issues as sometimes having a bad year.

“These festivals are just expensive to do,” Olesen had said in earlier comments. “The tax forms don’t necessarily reflect the reality of what is going on. That is just a plain fact of tax forms.”

The Chamber also hosts the Geneva Arts Fair, Festival of the Vine and the Christmas Walk, as well as smaller events.