Love and Blunder: an alternative approach to Valentine’s Day – Viking style!

Wednesday 14 February 2024, York, UK.

A quiet table for two with soft music playing in the background whilst you enjoy an intimate evening with a loved one?  It isn’t everyone’s idea of a good Valentine’s Day night out – but JORVIK Viking Festival is coming to the rescue with an evening of hearty food, flagons of mead and positively raucous Norse-themed fun, as it hosts the Viking Banquet: Love & Blunder!

Taking inspiration from sagas of Viking love, the Viking Feast is the antithesis to soppy, romance-filled nights of wine and roses.  Diners sit at large tables, shoulder to shoulder with their fellow Viking-enthusiasts in the splendid historic setting of York’s Merchant Adventurer’s Hall – a fitting substitute for a Viking longhouse – for a three course banquet, washed down with mead or ale.  Entertainment is provided by Viking skalds – the finest storytellers – with traditional tales of romance gone right and wrong! 

“Whether you are a couple wanting an alternative to a traditional Valentine’s day, or looking for a great reason to avoid watching another romcom at home, the Viking Banquet is an evening that you’ll never forget – for all the right reasons,” comments event manager for JORVIK Viking Festival, Abigail Judge.  “Our friends at Nidhoggr Mead Company are providing a glass of the honey-based drink to help sweeten the night as you raise a glass to the Norse gods!”

Tickets for the event are £95 per person (over 18s only), with final bookings to be made by 31 January – although with the event already proving very popular, it may sell out well before then.

The event is part of this year’s JORVIK Viking Festival, which runs from 12 – 18 February at venues throughout the city of York.  Known as Europe’s largest Viking Festival, regularly drawing 45,000 visitors to the city, the event promises seven days of Viking fun, with a host of free and paid-for events for people of all ages, from Beserker Bootcamps which train the next generation of young Viking warriors, to academic lectures.  A free living history encampment will be pitched in Parliament Street for the duration of the Festival, with other highlights including the March to Coppergate, a parade of hundreds of Vikings through the streets of York and a best costume and beard competition – open to real and artificially-enhanced facial hair entries!  Saturday evening will see a fiery finale take place in the shadow of Clifford’s Tower.

Anyone who can’t contain their excitement about attending the Banquet can prepare themselves for the unique evening at home thanks to a very special scented candle currently available in the giftshop at JORVIK Viking Centre.  The Jorvik Feast candle produces a unique blend of aromas to recreate the scent profile of a traditional Norse dining experience – the perfect calorie-free aromatic appetiser for the delights that follow!  Burning for around 42 hours, it is priced at £18.50.

For more information about JORVIK Viking Festival, please visit jorvikvikingfestival.co.uk