Viking Festival

Every March, the City of York has a Viking Festival to commemorate a battle that took place between the Anglo Saxons and some marauding Vikings from the north country.Here you will see the gathering of the armies at the north end of the city. They will march from Museum Park all the way through the center of York. Their destination of Clifford's Tower at the south end of the city.
Above is a man who is trying his best to look like a real Viking. I think he is doing a good job! I understand that many of these participants make their own chain mail by hand, so they're fairly dedicated to this hobby!
The story goes that the Viking army came to attack York on the same day that an Anglo Saxon princess was going to be married to the Anglo Saxon prince of York. The above picture shows the wedding procession that is bringing the bride into York.
Here you have the Vikings armies marching towards York. They were making quite a racket by banging their weapons on their shields and yelling various things at the tops of their lungs. It's was quite a sight to see them right in the middle of down town York. Of course the traffic--pedestrian, since cars aren't allowed into the inner part of York--was all halted to let them pass by.
Below we see the two armies attacking each other on the field in front of the Castle Museum at the southern end of York. Behind me is Clifford's tower, which overlooks the museum and this field. This re-enactment was quite dramatic because there was an announcer who was telling the story of the Vikings meeting the bridal procession and taking the princess hostage and then the Anglo Saxon prince coming to her rescue with his army! They had dramatic music playing in the background and everything! It was quite an experience!