Authentic Viking festival near Corby to showcase Norse heritage and warriors in a cultural celebration

A Viking festival is being held in East Carlton Park this weekend.

Gathering of the Kings will take place at East Carlton Park from Saturday, June 17, to Sunday, June 18.

The festival will be on from 10am to 6pm on each day.

It promises to be a great family event with two days of intense combat displays, featuring 80 to 100 fighters, supported by extensive living history and a re-enactors market which will have 40 to 45 traders.

Adrian Brown of Ravens Croft Events said: “The idea behind the event is ‘a king has died, leaving the vacant crown’.

“We have invited groups from all over the country to come and take part in various battle scenarios at the end of which a king will emerge from the combatants. They will then be crowned. They will keep that crown for 12 months until they are invited back next year to defend it.”

To establish the new king or queen combatants will fight one-on-one in a tournament process and at the end you are left with one warrior.

The combat for this is fought in what is called a ‘western style’ which means any part of your body that is covered by wearing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, they are your hit zones. Nobody is allowed to hit above the head or below the elbow or below the knee.

The King or Queen will be crowned on a throne donated by one of the traders. They will keep the crown for a year until next year's event and a sword displaying the winners name and club name will go on display at Corby Heritage Centre.

Ravens Croft Events are a Northamptonshire-based group who aim to establish a permanent Viking settlement in the county which will be used for events, education and well-being.

Adrian said: “So far we’ve done work with community groups and charity groups.

“Come September we will be doing work with some schools. The vision we’ve got is for correcting some of the mistakes being made in current Viking education.

“A lot of things like The Last Kingdom and the Viking series do a lot, and I do believe that they’re very good for giving people a basic interest in the subject but they also play around a lot with timelines and certain individuals' history to make it very dramatic. So what we would like to be doing is putting that right.”

The traders for the event have come from all across the country to sell everything you would expect to find at a 10th Century Viking market.

There will be food and drinks (including mead) as well as other trinkets available to buy.

“We want people to come along, have a good time and safety is always our first priority in everything we do.

“With this weekend being Father’s Day as well, we’ve organised little tournaments where the kids can get in and have a little go with either the Vikings or this weekend have a go with their dads.

“It’s very family oriented.“

To learn more about the Gathering of the Kings event visit the Facebook page.