TICKETS have gone on sale today (April 14) for one of York’s biggest annual events.

The Jorvik Viking Festival takes place from May 28 to June1 and was rescheduled from February to take place in the five days leading up to the Platinum Jubilee weekend, will once again fill York’s city centre with travellers, traders and warriors from the 10th century.

Organiser Gareth Henry of Jorvik Viking Centre said: “We are very excited with what this Festival will bring to York – we are expecting that the much warmer weather will encourage more people out to see our outdoor activities, including the ever-popular Viking encampment in Parliament Street and fun presentations on our city centre stage, as all of the favourite events return.”

Whilst many events – from the March to Coppergate, which sees a vast column of Vikings march from York Minster to Jorvik Viking Centre, to crafting workshops, the Best Beard competition and the Strongest Viking contest – will follow the familiar format, the Saturday evening event will be very different this year.

Gareth said: “We wanted to keep our grand spectacular on Saturday evening as family-friendly as possible, so moving it to much later in the evening when it would be dark was not an option. Instead, we’re bringing a brand new show together just for 2022 – The Jorvik Games – and adding a degree of healthy competition to the Eye of York.

“Normally, the outcome of this big event is carefully scripted, but this year, we’ll be looking for the Jorvik Champion with four teams nominating the best amongst their crew in challenges of strength, endurance, cunning and wit, with the audience invited to pick a team and cheer them into battle and onto victory.”

Although all tickets for February’s Saturday evening event sold out within two weeks, ticket holders from February will be guaranteed tickets for this, with a host more tickets due to be released on Thursday, April 21 at 10am.

A limited number of tickets have also been released today for the other sell-out event, Lothbrok’s Feast: The Viking Banquet, which takes place on Wednesday, June 1 from 7pm.

The Richard Hall Symposium, a day of lectures from prominent academics in the Viking world, will take place the preceding Sunday, May 22 in the DeGrey Theatre at York St John University on Lord Mayor’s Walk with a theme of Hoards in the North: Northern identities in Viking hoards.

For the first time, attendees will have the option to attend the event live or livestream from any corner of the globe.

For more information on all of the events at this year’s Jorvik Viking Festival, please click here.

Tickets can also be booked by calling 01904 615505, although lines are expected to be very busy so online booking is strongly recommended.