Today dear reader of our blog, we would like to tell you about the Dublin Viking Festival. People that are interested in Irish history know that the Vikings played a vital part in the forming of the country. Just the fact that the capital ‘Dublin’ was founded by them in the IX century tells us a lot.
So, of course, there are lots of places in Ireland that are connected with the Vikings. We will one day elaborate a bit more on this in our posts, but those that can’t wait can visit “Dublinia” and find out all that you need on this subject.
But now we’ll talk about the actual festival. The Dublin Viking Festival has been held in Ireland for a couple of years, but this was our first time attending this event. We really wanted to attend the first part of the festival which was held in ‘St. Anne’s Park’ on July, but unfortunately we couldn’t do this.
But it was still very interesting to see how the second part of the festival was held in August. We have to firstly state that the leaflet that showed where the festival will be held wasn’t very accurate. Even for us, people that lived in Ireland for a couple of years now, it wasn’t very easy to find this festival. Even though it was held in a very well known place.
The festival it’s self was held in was held in a historic area of Dublin called the ‘Viking/Medieval area’, which contains a collection of sights from this era, including, the ‘Brazen Head’, ‘St.Audoen’s Gate’, the ‘Dublinia’ museum, ‘Dublin Castle’ and Christ Church Cathedral. Also, the place where the festival was held was adjoined to one of the most visited places in Dublin, ‘Temple Bar’.
But neither from the side of Temple Bar, or from the side of the Dublin Council there weren’t any signs. So it’s no surprise that there weren’t that much people at the festival. But we think that the organizers and participants of this event tried had to see a crowed of people at the festival.
We thought that all those participating in the festival were fans of medieval costumed performances, amateurs on the Viking era and specialists on ancient battles. This was simple to find out because of how lovingly they talked about Viking fights, how enthusiastically they demonstrated their home made Viking utensils and staged Viking fights.
This was all very interesting because you could fell the historical connection of past and present day Ireland. It was also good to see that some parents made their children Viking costumes and weapons and brought them to the festival. You just had to see the way the children looked at not only the Viking battles but also at the Viking lifestyle.
Of course it’s interesting to venture around Dublin in an amphibious –car on the ‘Viking Splash Tour’ especially while wearing a Viking style helmet, travelling on land and water but for a cultural and historic purpose the Viking Festival is more important.
An important part of the festival was the showcase of the sand sculptures, which was held beside Dublin Castle. This year there were three new sand sculptures, which, amazed by their originality.
In conclusion we would like to note that, if it wasn’t for the flaws that we mentioned earlier, the Viking Festival would be a very great festival. Interestingly this festival isn’t one of a kind. We would like to remind you that there are events with similar properties held in Carlingford, and which can be viewed at the end of August this year. On this event seven families have to live like their ancestors did 800 years ago for one week.
