Heritage site set for huge Viking festival

A Viking festival believed to be the biggest in the UK this year is being staged at a pre-historic heritage site this weekend.

Flag Fen near Peterborough is hosting the event which runs until Monday and will attract 380 Viking re-enactors from across Britain.

It will feature a battle dating back to the year 1010 - with an Anglo-Danish army from Cambridgeshire and East Anglia facing off against a Viking force.

One of the organisers says the appeal of Viking history is "universally popular" and goes down particularly well in the city which has strong Viking heritage.

Jacqui Mooney, the general manager of Flag Fen Archaeology Park, said that while they do not have Viking archaeology at the Iron Age site, the area around has strong links to the period with nearby Fengate derived from a Viking name.

She said it was a chance for people to learn more about the Viking way of life.

"It's a fun sort of education where you don't realise you are being educated.

"We have had the Viking festival here for over 15 years. It's so successful because the landscape is so perfect because it is protected and untouched, and the re-enactors can tailor the area to how they want."

Visitors can discover what life was like in a real Viking encampment, learn about their diet and watch traditional crafts such as woodworking, metalworking, cooking and weaving in action.

As part of the event, there is a mock Viking burial which they then excavate to reveal more about how the Vikings lived and died.

Jacqui Mooney said the event was vital to help fund the running of the heritage site.

"Just like most heritage attractions it takes a lot more money to run the site than we get from people coming through the door," she said.

"We're always looking at ways to make the site more viable and to protect the archaeology."

Organisers said the event would feature a re-enactment of the Battle of Ringmere which was fought on 5 May 1010 , as an Anglo-Danish army from Cambridgeshire and East Anglia, faces off against a Viking force commanded by Thorkell the Tall.

It will show re-enactors charging into battle, "swords flashing and shields clashing, recreating the intensity and drama of ancient warfare".

But Ms Mooney said it will also show that the Vikings did not just come to Britain to fight and pillage but to settle and make the country their home.

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