Sheringham will be having its annual Scira Viking festival and in preparation for the event, a craft workshop was held in the town for young children. The workshop was run by Colin Seal, the founder of the festival along with members of the Sheringham carnival committee team. During the workshop, young children together with their parents made shields and swords from pieces of foam board which were prepared by volunteers and even the mayor of Sheringham, David Gooch couldn’t keep away from the fun as he praised the efforts of Mr Seal.
He described Colin as the real driving force for the festival although he also recognised the contribution of the team that was working with him. A Viking documentary will be screened all day on Saturday at the Mo museum in town to mark the beginning of the event this year. Some of the attractions that are planned for this year include Viking-style spinning and knitting demonstration at the seafront museum along with street battles which will be staged by re-enactment group Wuffa who are based in Gorleston. At 6 pm, there will be a torchlit procession which will start from Station Road before passing through the centre of town and finally heading towards East Beach. At the east beach, there will be a longboat built by, Brian Howe, a carpenter from West Runton. The longboat will be set alight on the shore.
This is the fourth year that the festival has been held which is done to celebrate the Norse heritage of the town of Sheringham. This year’s event is expected to have even more events as it has always been in every year that has followed the first. Most of the Viking themed activities will be showing people what life was like when the Vikings first settled in the area. The influence of Vikings has been felt in many parts of Europe and in places such as Sheringham, boats used for lobster and crab fishing were still being made in the same manner as the Vikings did until the 60s.
The Viking festival is designed to be a day of fun especially since things can be quite depressing in the town during the winter season. There will also be games, food and drinks from the times of the Vikings along with storytelling and music. The festival is partly funded by local businesses and individuals but it’s hoped that in the future it will be self-funding.