UW-Green Bay Hosts the Midwest’s Largest Viking Festival
The Midwest’s largest Viking Festival will be held Friday, October 4 and Saturday, October 5 at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Vikings from near and far will gather and raise an encampment on the UW-Green Bay Viking House grounds (near Wood Hall) on the Green Bay campus. This will be UW-Green Bay’s third year hosting the Midwest’s largest Viking festival. The festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is free to attend and open to the public.
Each year, more than sixty Vikings will set up a large camp to demonstrate blacksmithing, silversmithing, wood carving and turning, textile arts, glass bead making, cooking, storytelling, singing and battle reenactments. This is an all-ages festival with activities for kids as well (a Viking Quest and kubb). This year’s festival will also host numerous new events, such as demonstrations from rune and flute making expert Kari Tauring. With even more events on the docket, and a higher projected attendance, the festival is expected to continue to grow.
Viking festivals are celebrations of Scandinavian history and culture. With nearly 3,000 people joining in the yearly celebrations, the festival aims to educate on the daily life of the Scandinavian region from a thousand years ago. The educational emphasis of the Midwest Viking Festival sets it apart from other festivals around the country. UW-Green Bay Professor Heidi Sherman, director of the Viking House and organizer of the Midwest Viking Festival, stresses the educational focus of the festival. “Our festival is based on archeology, dispelling some of the stereotypes that you find in the modern media.”
The Midwest Viking Festival carries vital importance for the region. Thousands of people in the Upper Midwest have ancestry from Scandinavian countries, attributed to the large influx of Scandinavian immigrants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Prof. Sherman discusses the importance for all, not just those of Scandinavian descent— “we don’t want to forget that we came from somewhere else,” she says. “It is a great way to see how history can be really exciting, sharing about everyday struggles and joys of daily life, and how people lived in that time.”
Source:
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