In the mid-1960s young people of Vágur tok steps at organising a New Year’s Festival in the village. Originally the plan was to establish a tradition that could gather villagers from elsewhere and at home this one night year by year. Right from the beginning the Festival has become bigger and bigger over the years. An important part is the great New Year’s Party that is now a regular event where villagers come together to enjoy themselves. As the poet NePtuN said:
My mind a picture doesn’t shove
It was in the village that we love
No New Year’s Eve
I saw so clear
Where I were
Other main events are the torch light procession, the firework and the bonfire that takes place on the spot called the “Triangle”. In the late 1960s the New Year’s Committee took over the Triangle. Originally the place used to be stone-paved ground for drying fish in the sun used by the local ship-owner thus being historical in itself.
In connection with the New Year’s Festival 2000 the New Year’s Committee, in cooperation with the Council, improved the appearance of this place so that the Triangle obtained its present beauty. Simultaneously a statue was erected to memorise the New Year’s Festival of the village. Mr. Helgi Larsen made and donated the statue that was unveiled by Mr. Mogens Dahl, chairman and pioneer in the New Year’s Committee for a generation, on 31 December 1999.
The Committee’s purpose with this initiative is to set a cairn or beacon in lasting memory of the customs, solidarity and ordinance that have always characterised the New Year’s Festival in Vágur.