UW-Green Bay hosts Viking Festival, Oct. 2
Green Bay, Wis.—On Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021, 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. Viking festivals are celebrations of Scandinavian history and culture. This year’s event will be hosted in honor and memory of Viking storyteller Adrian Spendlow, who passed away this past year. He was the husband of UW-Green Bay Professor Heidi Sherman.
The Green Bay Viking Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It is open to the public and free to attend. This festival will have live battle reenactments, singing and storytelling, and dance lessons from Viking sorceress Kari Tauring. In addition, there will be games and activities for the kids and guided tours of the Viking House by its original owners, Owen and Elspeth Christianson.
Sherman, a professor of history and director of the Viking House said the festival is a chance for people to better understand Viking culture.
“At these festivals, people have an opportunity to see Viking-era crafts demonstrated and explained by Viking specialists,” she said. “Viking festival reenactors set up an encampment and teach people how to the Vikings lived through crafts, cooking and battle demonstrations.”
The UW-Green Bay Viking House was completed in Stratford, Wis. in 2011 by the Christiansons. The house is based on meticulous research of the Viking-Age building traditions in Norway. The Christiansons’ plan was to use the house for reenactment and educational purposes. This dream was fulfilled in 2013, as the couple began to host UW-Green Bay students for Viking camp weekends. This in turn, inspired students to start archaeology studies and design a 3D Model of the House. In 2017, the Christiansons donated the house to UW-Green Bay to be used for educational hands-on learning.
Members of the media are welcome.
See the full schedule of events.
About the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Established in 1965, UW-Green Bay is a public institution serving 8,970 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students and 79,604 continuing education enrollees each year across all campus locations. We educate students from pre-college through retirement and offer 200+ degrees, programs and certificates. UW-Green Bay graduates are resilient, inclusive, sustaining and engaged members of their communities, ready to rise to fearlessly face challenges, solve problems and embrace diverse ideas and people. With four campus locations, the University welcomes students from every corner of the world. In 2020, UW-Green Bay was the fastest growing UW school in Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.uwgb.edu.
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