York’s Viking Festival saved thanks to grant from council
Great Odin’s raven, this is fine news! York’s Vikings will craft, pillage and battle again in February after their festival was saved.
The 2022 Jorvik Viking Festival is set to go ahead with a full seven day programme in February after City of York council have confirmed they will award York Archaeological Trust a grant of £30,000.
This announcement comes after the council agreed to allocate £100k of Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) funding to support a number of events and festivals in the city. These include the York Food and Drink Festival, York Design Week and the Ice Trail.
Leisure and culture lead Cllr Darryl Smalley said: “The ARG events and festivals fund is supporting large-scale events across the city, including the Jorvik Viking Festival.
“Alongside this support we are working with partners to help deliver a great range of events in the city.
“York is a city that’s lucky enough to have a diverse and exciting history and our Viking heritage is a very important part of our story.
“This funding will ensure that the festival can go ahead and we can all look forward to events including a Viking parade, a re-enactment of a traditional Viking battle and the strongest Viking competition.”
Full programme
Director of attractions for York Archaeological Trust Sarah Maltby welcomed the news.
“We know the huge economic impact that the annual Jorvik Viking Festival brings to the city, but as we are still recovering from months of closures and restricted admission numbers for our three indoor attractions, we would have been looking at a scaled-back event for 2022, had City of York Council not been able to support us with next year’s event,” she said.
“It means that we can guarantee a host of free activities for locals and visitors alike, including the living history encampment on Parliament Street, which forms such a hub of activity, education and fun.”