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PAIGE – The Texas Viking Festival and Skaldic Althing wrapped up its equinox celebration at the end of September, engaging the county’s proclivity for medieval fanfare.
The equinox marks when the sun crosses the celestial equator, when day and night are equal in length.
Moving away from their traditional summer solstice gathering for a more weather-appropriate evening festival, event organizer and owner of Valkyrie Ranch, Francisco Artes, saw an opportunity to provide fans of Nordic culture with a new revelry opportunity, independent of the county’s widely popular Sherwood Forest Faire.
“The beauty of this area is why we throw these fests and have thousands of people come out,” said Artes.
Valkyrie Ranch, a wildlife preserve, is also home to Thorin’s Meadery, supplying campers and attendees with all the cider and mead they can drink.
All of the buildings on site were built from locally sourced wood, housing traveling craft vendors of medieval garb, weaponry, jewelry and everything in-between.
The Gemstone Mine offered up prismatic minerals and the Knotty Gnome Bar catered with a smoking hookah lounge, all while fire dancers performed for an audience of barbarians.
Attendees credit the grounds themselves as an attraction, glowing underneath the moonlight.
“At the end of the day, we all need land therapy,” said artist Katie Merritt.
“You can camp and feel like you’re in a magical place. The campsite has so much to offer,” added visitor Kat, whose party attended the full two weeks of the Viking Festival as well as eight weeks of Sherwood.
Fans of the celebration are often frequent visitors of the accompanying medieval festival, but particularly enjoy the Nordic environment that the Skaldic Althing brings.
Artes wants Norse heritage to remain a focus as the gathering grows, looking to add full armor combat and horseback archery to its lineup of traditional competitions.
While Artes hopes to eventually be the size of Sherwood, he understands what else it is that the Viking Festival brings to the table.
While the forest faire and the Texas Renaissance Festival are on hiatus, Artes and his Vikings get ready for Yule, their biggest event of the year.
The first weekend of the December Yule celebration is a European-style music festival, Fanadarsongr, hosting authentic Nordic bands from overseas.
Wit h the colder weather, attendees stack up in furs, gather in drum circles and continue to celebrate life, the arts and culture for the following two weekends, drawing a substantial international crowd.
Artes sees it as an opportunity to help support his fellow craftsmen, providing a space for the local artisans and vendors during the “dry season” of renaissance festivals.
“A lot of these talented artisans would essentially be out of business otherwise,” said Artes, who barely charges vendors for space at the gatherings.
Why exactly it is that Bastrop County seems to have such an interest in medieval fairs isn’t certain, but Viking Festival patrons note a growing general interest.
“There’s been such a movement towards inauthentic tech, it doesn’t match our DNA, the DNA of our caveman ancestors still talks to us,” said Shónah, who lives a self-sustaining life in the woods. “People are getting tired of all this fakeness. People are going back to what’s inside themselves, what’s real.”
More information on Valkyrie Ranch and tickets for the Yule celebration can be found at http://www.texasvikingfestival. com.
“At the end of the day, we all need land therapy.”
— Katie Merritt
