DAN BEAN meets some ‘Vikings’ who travelled to York’s 28th festival celebrating its Norse heritage.

MORE than a thousand people turned out for a spectacular end to the 2013 Jorvik Viking Festival as hundreds of warriors marched through the ancient streets of York.

The 28th festival, organised with the York Archaeological Trust, ended with an enormous battle at the Eye of York as the sun went down on Saturday.

Events throughout the weekend included the Brawl At The Guildhall, in which warriors carried logs, wrestled and took part in a tug of war for the Viking Strongman trophy, and a parade of more than 400 Vikings from Dean’s Park to the Eye of York, with demonstrations by archers and falconers.

Re-enactors Jimmie Davidsson and Isabelle Falsen travelled from the border of Sweden and Norway to spend the week in York for the festival.

Jimmie said: “It’s been quite good this year, but as always the first end of the week was a bit quiet, so we strolled around all the excellent pubs and the Yorkshire Museum. You have a lovely city here, we love it more and more each time, there’s so much history around the corner.”

Isabelle said: “It’s been better than last year, definitely, but we would like to see more Vikings and we would like more Viking ships, as it was ten years ago.”

An audience of 1,300 people watched fireworks and fire archery at the Eye of York as the festival came to a close on Saturday with a fallen Viking warrior being heralded to Valhalla at Clifford’s Tower.

Danielle Daglan, festival organiser, said: “It was absolutely brilliant, really fantastic.

“We promised spectacle, and I think we delivered it. The feedback from the public was really positive.”