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Photos: Take my wife — please! Wife Carrying Contest returns to Burnaby

The Scandinavian Midsummer Festival is always a hit — and this contest is one of the reasons why.

It’s not officially summer until Burnaby celebrates the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival.

The popular annual event returned to Burnaby for two days of celebration on Saturday, June 24 and Sunday, June 25.

Visitors enjoyed Scandinavian food, entertainment and a variety of Midsummer traditions throughout the weekend.

A Sunday highlight, once again, was the annual Wife-Carrying Contest, which sees two-person teams racing through an obstacle course in an attempt to win the “wife’s” weight in beer (though the person being carried does, not, in fact, have to be married to the person carrying them).

This year’s champions were Eric Blaida and Anna Stankevich of Coquitlam.

Photographer Jennifer Gauthier was there to capture the thrills, spills and fun as the teams raced for beer.