Solstice Viking Festival

Recently we took a leisurely couple of hours drive south to partake in an annual Viking Solstice Festival.

We watched them plan, prepare and practice for battle.



It's quite amazing to witness how serious they appear to take all of their re enacting. They were certainly very convincing.

A complete viking village was erected, where they all spent their weekend.

A simple $2 per person was requested on entry, considering the effort that was put in for this wonderful display it was such a meagre request.

Every single person, right down to the babies were dressed in authentic, well as close to authentic as they can get, attire.

Sleeping quarters are pretty comfy, although I wouldn't want to be spending a Nordic winter in there, that's for sure.

Everyone contributes to the running of the village and small tasks were completed throughout the day. Here young girls are grinding flour ready to be make into bread.

This is the main kitchen area, where the feast for the evening of the solstice was busily being prepared. Just out the front a large pig was cooking over the fire.

Here a resident Viking prepares the Yule Log. Each year on the eve of the solstice they carve a new yule log, that is filled with their hopes and dreams for the coming year. During the evening celebrations last year's Yule Log is burned, along with the thoughts of the past. No dwelling, always moving forward, looking ahead to a brighter future.

Everyone was extremely friendly, chatty and very knowledgeable. They were so encouraging of the kids, always handing them swords and a allowing them try on various bits and bobs.

The kids were very surprised to find out just how heavy the head wear is.



There was no way on earth he was leaving this village without his own piece of the viking world.

Ready for battle, friends in real life but in the Viking world, who knows!

The finale of the day was the grand battle. A well planned, much thought out and prepared battle ensued. With the very vocal crowd looking on.

Again I was extremely surprised to see how they all really 'get into' this, often taking a blow or two from their battle rounds. I bet they've all had their fair share of injuries.

This wasn't a huge event, we had seen everything in a couple of hours, but it was nice to just hang around in the village and watch everyone go about their business of being vikings.

Given that we studied vikings last year this was a nice recap and a great visual for many of the things we only saw in books. It is definitely worth a trip if you or your kids are into vikings in any way at all!

You can keep up with the Viking Village Festival and be notified of future events via their facebook page. Great work to all involved!