Vikings have arrived in York as Europe’s largest festival celebrating all things Norse returns to the city for its 40th year.

Monday, 17 February 2025 16:43

By Dylan Connell

Parliament Street has been turned into a Viking encampment, fit with long boats, traders and tents, for the JORVIK Viking Festival which opened today (Monday, February 17).

Forty-five thousand people are expected to visit York for the week-long event.

“It’s something the whole city benefits from,” a spokesperson for the event said, adding that the festival “makes the winter vibrant”.

Speaking to The Press in Parliament Street, they said: “We’ve got the sun shining, the tents are all up, the boats are all up – and Parliament Street is absolutely packed with our Viking encampment.”

The camp aims to give viewers an insight into life in York more than 1,000 years ago when, on November 1, 866, the city was captured by Vikings and remained under their control for almost a century.

Vikings will take over York once again on Saturday, with more than 200 set to march from Dean’s Park to Coppergate – where a Viking town was discovered beneath the ground in the 1970s.

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