Europe’s largest Viking Festival returns for its 40th year, to York Monday 17 – Sunday 23 February 2025, with a horde of events to excite, thrill and entertain!
As usual, the Festival features a mixture of free and paid-for events spread around the city centre, in venues including Parliament Street where a living history encampment will host a plethora of Viking craftspeople from woodcarvers and armourers to potters and silversmiths. The Midgard Marquee at the end of Parliament Street will host JORVIK’s academy for young warriors, with new skills to learn, including swords, shields and even axe throwing!
Other highlights include two evenings (Friday 21 and Saturday 22 February) with a spectacular show at the Eye of York (next to Clifford’s Tower), with this year’s dramatic son-et-lumiere event telling the story of Tyrfing. The Cursed Sword, complete with battles and pyrotechnics. Tickets cost £20 for adults and £15 for concessions, with each evening event starting at 7.30pm.
Large scale events, including the March to Coppergate – a parade of over 200 Viking warriors through the city streets, from York Minster to JORVIK Viking Centre – will fill the city with costumed Vikings, with the warriors then joining The Viking Games. Showcasing the Viking skills and strength in a series of trials – including the all-important boasting – the family-friendly event concludes as any Viking disagreement should: battle!
One of the most popular events of the Festival – Poo Day, when young visitors attempt to recreate the world-famous Lloyds Bank coprolite (fossilised human excrement) using a variety of ingredients to replicate undigested seeds and intestinal worms in a dough ‘poo’, is being extended into Poo Week, with daily sessions of the hands-on fun at DIG: An Archaeological Adventure on St Saviourgate.
Tickets for the paid-for events can be booked now at
www.jorvikvikingfestival.co.uk, and with the major events expected to sell out, early booking is recommended to avoid disappointment.
JORVIK Viking Festival was originally conceived to celebrate the end of winter, and this year’s Festival co-incides with the last week of JORVIK Viking Centre’s Winter Adventure. The world-famous recreation of Viking-age Coppergate has been covered with snow and ice to showcase what winter might have been like for the 10th century inhabitants of York.
Tickets
for
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February
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always
sell
out
in
advance,
so
prebooking
is
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