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Midwest Viking
Festival
September 19 & 20, 2025 • 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. • Free
UW-Green Bay is the proud host of the annual Midwest Viking Festival which explores Scandinavian history and the daily life of the region from a thousand years ago. Located at the Viking House grounds north of the Wood Hall lot, the festival celebrates the craft traditions, food, stories and many other aspects of medieval Scandinavia (Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). Nearly 3,000 intrepid explorers joined us last year and we invite you to join the next expedition. Kom igjen!
Family Friendly
Gather with friends and family around a steaming cauldron and learn about that down-home Viking hospitality.
Interactive
Connect with different types of professions who are experts in crafts and cooking.
Cultural
Hear stories, songs and tales from those long-gone days.
Activities &
Entertainment
- A Viking encampment with blacksmiths, silversmiths, a potter, weavers, woodworkers, glass bead makers, medieval games (hnaftafl and kubb), archery and cooks making food with ingredients only available during the Viking Age.
- We are going to be hosting presentations that you almost certainly have not heard before, delving into stories from Finland and Sámi culture. We'll have an emphasis on healing, magic, music, and how they are all connected -- and that's in addition to all of the fun, hands-on activities, and education you'd expect from any event that gets this much enthusiasm from me.
- Tours of the Viking House by Elspeth and Owen Christiansen.
- Activities for kids (archery, a “Viking Quest” scavenger hunt, kubb, get your name written in runes).
- Rune readings!
2025 Schedule of Events
The performance and demonstration schedule is the same for both days. The Sons of Norway will be selling cookies. For a more substantial fare, the food truck Caribbean Cruiser will have delicious lunches for purchase. While entrance to the festival is free, there is a cost for snacks, food, and other items sold by vendors.
Friday, September 19th
| Time | Events |
|---|---|
| 10:00 a.m. | Festival Opening! |
| 10:15 a.m. | Battle Demonstration |
| 11:00 a.m. | Tanley Lego - Sámi storytelling circle: hear tales about the importance of skiing to the indigenous people of Northern Europe. |
| 12:00 p.m. | Lynette Reini-Grandell: Runolaulu, rune-singing from the Kalevala, the Finnish epic of magic and healing charms. |
| 1:00 p.m. | Skogtroll - an exercise in experimental archeology that explores what Viking age music may have sounded like. By building and learning how to play instruments that the ancient Nordic peoples may have encountered, Skogtroll tries to transport us back to the Middle Ages to get a glimpse of what it may have sounded like. |
| 2:00 p.m. | Kari Tauring - Healing Women: Healing practices emphasize the realities of Iron Age warfare. Women are described diagnosing, treating, amputating and cauterizing, and sometimes preserving the limbs of warriors. There are nine healing goddesses on the Mountain of Medicine describing nine aspects of health. One of them is Eir, the traveling doctor of the World Tree. Women using herbs, specially designed tools, incantations, and runes practiced and taught doctoring skills throughout the Iron Age and into the early Middle Ages in Scandinavia. Many traveling völur, staff carrying women. brought new knowledge, herbs, and techniques from the birthing house to the battle field. Come and hear their stories! |
| 3:00 p.m. | Battle Demonstration! |
| 3:45 p.m. | The Danish Pot: clay pot cooking demonstration. Come see what goes into the pot and what comes out! Long, low, and slow makes for a tasty meal at the end of a long day working crafts or farming. Renee Petersen |
| 5:00 p.m. | Festival Closes |
Saturday, September 20th
| Time | Events |
|---|---|
| 10:00 a.m. | Festival Opening with Kari Tauring |
| 10:15 a.m. | Kari Tauring, Mythic Animals: Edda (great grandmother) poems are a collection of mythic stories full of lessons and cautionary tales for those who will listen wisely. From the cosmic cow to the wolf that swallows the sun, animals are important metaphors for human behavior and community relationships. Kari will share songs and stories about mythic animals and what they symbolize. Join her in songleik (song play) as we recount the animals of the world tree! |
| 11:00 a.m. | Battle Demonstration |
| 11:30 p.m. | Tanley Lego - Sámi storytelling circle: hear tales about the importance of skiing to the indigenous people of Northern Europe. |
| 12:30 p.m. | Skogtroll - an exercise in experimental archeology that explores what viking age music may have sounded like. By building and learning how to play instruments that the ancient Nordic peoples may have encountered, Skogtroll tries to transport us back to the middle ages to get a glimpse of what it may have sounded like. |
| 1:30 p.m. | Lynette Reini-Grandell: Runolaulu, rune-singing from the Kalevala, the Finnish epic of magic and healing charms. |
| 2:30 p.m. | Kari Tauring, Healing Women: Healing practices emphasize the realities of Iron Age warfare. Women are described diagnosing, treating, amputating and cauterizing, and sometimes preserving the limbs of warriors. There are nine healing goddesses on the Mountain of Medicine describing nine aspects of health. One of them is Eir, the traveling doctor of the World Tree. Women using herbs, specially designed tools, incantations, and runes practiced and taught doctoring skills throughout the Iron Age and into the early Middle Ages in Scandinavia. Many traveling völur, staff carrying women. brought new knowledge, herbs, and techniques from the birthing house to the battle field. Come and hear their stories! |
| 3:30 p.m. | Battle Demonstration |
| 4:00 p.m. | Renee Petersen, The Danish Pot: clay pot cooking demonstration. Come see what goes into the pot and what comes out! Long, low, and slow makes for a tasty meal at the end of a long day working crafts or farming. |
| 5:00 p.m. | Festival Closes |
Other fun things to do at the festival:
- Tour the Viking House with the folks who built it, Owen and Elspeth.
- Check out their portable Viking House!
- Learn about Viking-era silver and black smithing, a thousand-year old recipes from Northern Europe, coin striking, wood turning, bead making, ceramics, bone carving, wire weaving, and textiles (including an impressive natural dye demonstration).
- Shop with several vendors selling handmade crafted items.
- Educational games for children, including a Viking Quest.
- Buy the most delicious cookies from our local Sons of Norway lodge.
- Enjoy lunch with our friends from Caribbean Cruiser’s food truck.
The festival remains free and accessible to all through the generous sponsorship of Viking Fest Minnesota, The College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), and the Weidner Center. Special guest appearances by Tanley Lego and Lynette Reini-Grandell were made possible through a Wisconsin Arts Board Creative Communities grant. And the DePere Antiquarian Society’s historic preservation grant has been of immense service to giving the Viking House a fresh coat of pine tar paint. Thank you all for your generous support!
Contact Us! Skal!
Meet Heidi Sherman, the director of the Viking House and the person who organizes our Midwest Viking Festival. If you have questions, just ask!