Green Bay, WI — On Friday and Saturday, September 19 and 20, 2025 Vikings from near and far will gather and raise an encampment on the UW-Green Bay Viking House grounds and the Wood Hall parking lot on the Green Bay campus. This will be UW-Green Bay’s fourth year hosting the Midwest’s largest Viking festival. The festival expanded its hours to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free to attend and open to the public.
This year, the festival will include guests from the Sámi and Finnish cultures, two non-Scandinavian groups that interacted with the Norse peoples. Guest Tanley Lego, a Sámi culture bearer, will tell stories about the importance of skiing to the indigenous people of Northern Europe and other ancient Indigenous skills and arts the Sámi taught Scandinavians. Finnish American poet Lynette Reini Grandell will present rune-singing from the Kalevala, the Finnish epic of magic and healing charms.
As in past years, reenactors will demonstrate battle tactics, crafts, and the various foodways of the era. Kari Tauring will return with presentations on “Healing Women” of the Iron Age, and local musician Eric Bestul will regale the festival with music of the era. Author of Viking cookbooks, Renee Petersen, will also demonstrate. With new events on the docket, and a higher projected attendance, the festival is expected to continue to grow.
Viking festivals are celebrations of Scandinavian history and culture. With nearly 3,000 people joining in the yearly celebrations, the festival aims to educate on the daily life of the Scandinavian region from a thousand years ago. The educational emphasis of the Midwest Viking Festival is vital for the region, and sets this festival apart from other festivals around the country. Thousands of people in the Upper Midwest have ancestry from Scandinavian countries, attributed to the large influx of Scandinavian immigrants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The festival remains free and open to all, in part due to the generous support of Viking Fest Minnesota, a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board, and UW-Green Bay’s College for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS).
Members of the media are welcome to attend. View the full weekend schedule.
About UW-Green Bay
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is a school of resilient problem solvers who dare to reach higher with the power of education that ignites growth and answers the biggest challenges. Serving 11,500 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students as well as 100,000 continuing education learners annually, UW-Green Bay offers 200 academic degrees, programs, and certificates. With four campus locations in Northeast Wisconsin, the University’s access mission welcomes all students who want to learn, from every corner of the world. Championing bold thinking since opening its doors in 1965, it is a university on the rise – Wisconsin’s fastest-growing UW. For more information, visit www.uwgb.edu.For more information, visit www.uwgb.edu.
