Jorvik Viking Festival
Item
- Title
- Jorvik Viking Festival
- Description
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Jorvik Viking Festival is an annual week-long celebration of York’s Viking heritage, attended by re-enactors and enthusiasts from across Europe and beyond.
The Festival began in February 1985, a year after the opening of the Jorvik Viking Centre, and has been held every year since. Events from the early Festivals include longboat races and boat burning (in collaboration with the Shetland Up-Helly-A’ Vikings), theatrical performances, and the ever-popular combat displays. Celebrities including TV presenter Valerie Singleton, jazz musician Courtney Pine, and astronaut Helen Sharman have made appearances, and it has attracted considerable international media attention since the very beginning. The length of the Festival has varied, from five weeks in 1987 to just one day in 2001, but since the mid-2000s has averaged a week in duration.
In 1994, the event was rebranded as the “Jorvik Festival” to enable integration of non-Viking elements such as medieval and Georgian banquets in 1995. However, by 1996 the Viking name was reinstated and focus returned to the main events of a longship regatta, battle reenactments, and boat-burning.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021 the Viking Festival went online for the first time as “That Jorvik Viking Thing,” providing digital resources and live-streamed events including lectures and musical performances. Since 2022, the Festival has returned to its usual format of in-person events. - Date
- February 1985 (inaugural year)
- February 1986
- February 1987
- February 1988
- February 1989
- February 1990
- February 1991
- February 1992
- February 1993
- February 1994
- February 1995
- 9 - 17 February 1996
- 8 - 16 February 1997
- 14 - 22 February 1998
- 19 - 20 February 1999
- 24 - 27 February 2000
- 17 February 2001
- 9 - 16 February 2002
- February 2003
- February 2004
- February 2005
- 16 - 26 February 2006
- 14 - 18 February 2007
- 13 - 17 February 2008
- 18 - 22 February 2009
- 13 - 20 February 2010
- 18 - 27 February 2011
- February 2012
- 16 - 24 February 2013
- 15 - 23 February 2014
- 14 - 22 February 2015
- 15 - 21 February 2016
- 20 - 26 February 2017
- 12 - 18 February 2018
- 20 - 27 February 2019
- 15 - 23 February 2020
- February 2021 (online only)
- 28 May - 1 June 2022
- 11 - 19 February 2023
- Relation
- Jorvik Viking Festival
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