Portadown's Viking Festival | Ireland's Norse Heritage
Arriving at Portadown
In the United States civil war reenactments are a common patriotic event. In Northern Ireland they celebrate the Vikings. Vikings occupied and were a big part of history there for 400 years. And the small town of Portadown is home to an annual Viking Festival bringing that history back to life.
I got there a day before the festival started and was able to meet organisers and those who not only follow, but love the viking way of living. I wanted to see them set up the village in a huge park near my hotel. And that village is historically authentic.
Families, all dressed as vikings, pitch white tents, set up cooking fires, lay out their jewelry and wares and settle in. They just go about their daily viking routine. And they are happy for you to ask questions about making chainmail, the finer points of swords and shields, how they got involved at all.
Viking long boats come up the Bann River to dock. (These are some of the boats you may also have seen in the historic series Vikings)
And the evening brought spooky, eery, traditional viking music. And the next day featured viking battles with the clash of swords where if you were supposedly killed, you laid down for 30 seconds…and then got back in the fight.
Welcome!
Dinner time
Some participants even follow this way of life from festival to festival over the summer season. I met a family with two small children doing just that. Instead of what we think of as camping, they go from festival to festival selling their shields. or swords, or pottery, or jewelry. And walking the Viking walk as well as talking the talk.
One organiser was excited to show me the drinking horn he had on his belt. He said you carry it everywhere, because you never when you’ll need it.
Clash of the Vikings!
Hear what happens in a Viking Village and learn about their history in Northern Ireland in this episode of Erin’s Isle.