[Archived] City of Alexandria Schedules Concerts to Celebrate Alexandria’s Swedish Sister City, Helsingborg, Sweden

For Immediate Release: January 9, 2014  

To celebrate the relationship between the City of Alexandria and its Sister City, Helsingborg, Sweden, the City is hosting public and private concerts for the Helsingborg, Sweden Lucia Girls, escorted by Helsingborg’s Mayor Carin Wredström, from January 10 through January 13. The public is invited to attend a free community concert on Monday, January 13, at noon in the Vola Lawson Lobby of City Hall, 301 King Street.

Additional concerts are scheduled at the Goodwin House, George Washington Middle School, T.C. Williams High School, and INOVA Alexandria Hospital. Helsingborg has been a Sister City of Alexandria since 1966.

The Lucia Girls performances will symbolize the St. Lucia Festival. This is a great Swedish festival of hope is a celebration of light in the darkest of time. Traditionally, young girls form a procession dressed in long white dresses holding candles. At the head of the procession walks one of the girls, wearing a crown of candles in her hair. The girls sing a number of traditional St. Lucia and holiday songs.

The City of Alexandria recognizes the following organizations for hosting these concerts: Goodwin House of Alexandria; Goodwin House, Baileys Crossroads; Alexandria City Public Schools’ Center for the Arts; and INOVA Hospital Alexandria. The concerts are sponsored by the City of Alexandria in partnership with the Sister Cities Committee and the City’s Office of the Arts.

For more information about the City’s Sister Cities program, contact Cheryl Anne Colton, Regional Program Director for the Office of the Arts, at 703.746.5565. To learn more about the programs and services of the Office of the Arts, call 703.746.5588 or visit www.alexandriava.gov/Arts.