Meet the NC family behind the Viking Experience Festival

STEM, N.C. — The small city of Stem is house to one among North Carolina’s most attention-grabbing festivals. Yearly, the inhabitants of 1,000 folks nearly a couple of hundred vikings. 

Hanna based the pageant along with her mom, Angela. Their firm, Wanderings in Wonderland, began as Angela’s pictures enterprise and advanced.

All of it started with Angela capturing artistic pictures, which included jewellery, fantasy, artwork items and costumes. She used her daughters as fashions and took whimsical images of her household at cosplay occasions and festivals they attended throughout the state and out of doors of N.C.

Sooner or later, the household attended VikingCon in Maryland, and so they have been immediately hooked.

“We got here again and I couldn’t cease speaking about how we want one thing like that down right here,” Hanna stated.

The Viking Expertise Pageant is born

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it paused the festival-loving household’s imaginative and prescient of making their very own occasion. Hanna, a brand new registered nurse who labored in Raleigh, was slammed with sufferers as she helped construct WakeMed’s pandemic unit. Her expertise as a nurse impressed her to hunt one thing extra.

“In 2020, when every thing shutdown, we simply began speaking about how a lot we missed Renaissance festivals and the ‘stepping out of our personal world’ vibe that it gave us,” Hanna stated. “For me, this was a solution to convey again my artistic facet.”

After the pandemic, Hanna and her household started touring in costume, attending festivals as entertainers and establishing their very own cubicles.

Hanna and her household all have characters with huge storylines and expansive lives. When she is in character Hanna is “Queen Hanna the Purple,” and her youthful sisters Sarah and Becca are her daughters.

The household invents and performs completely different storylines for audiences.

“All of us have these tales and we love portraying them,” stated Hanna, who will likely be in character along with her household and crew on the N.C. Viking Pageant. “We completely simply adore portraying them. Numerous our tales come up after hours across the campfire once we’re simply having an exquisite time.”

They hosted the primary Viking Expertise Pageant in 2022, setting a big objective of 300 attendees for the weekend. On the finish of the weekend, nearly 3,000 folks attended.

“It seems like we had this loopy thought and I am unable to consider how many individuals have been fascinated with making it work,” Hanna stated. “I’m so humbled by this.”

This yr’s occasion will likely be a lot bigger, so it’s going to want a bigger venue. The occasion will likely be held at The Barn at Vino, a 22-acre spot at 3200 Bliss Path in Stem, N.C.

Hanna has 4 sisters and a youthful brother, who teaches ax throwing at their occasions. Her dad prefers to not gown up however helps with parking, building and different logistics.

“My mother is legendary for saying, ‘Honey, I’ve a plan,’ and roping him in,” Hanna laughed.

Since creating the pageant, Hanna and her household have poured over 200 years of historical past, familiarizing themselves with the Viking age.

“The Vikings weren’t simply raiders, even when that is we all know them for,” Hanna stated. “Viking was really a job description, and we need to present folks the ‘extra’ of what the Vikings have been.”

The household’s tales are impressed by historical past however not all the time traditionally correct.

“We do not inform folks we’re reenactors, particularly as a result of reenactors are doing an incredible job educating,” Hanna stated. “We’re historically-based entertainers.”

Struggle pit, fairies and jewellery making

The Viking Expertise Pageant options one thing for everybody, even when you’re not conversant in the Vikings.

A preferred attraction is the struggle pit with foam weaponry designed to look interval correct and struggle masters assist folks be taught combating methods. There’s even a struggle pit for teenagers.

There will likely be ax throwing, historic archery, medieval sword combating, and live-action function taking part in, the place friends can grow to be performers and create their very own storyline. There’s an escape room for teenagers, a fairy tea social gathering, a ticketed dinner theater occasion, weaving and jewelry-making demonstrations and over 50 distributors promoting handmade objects.

“I’ve poured over that listing and put my coronary heart and soul into the people who find themselves coming,” Hanna stated. “I am happy with the artisans now we have.”

Meals vans and native eating places will likely be on web site and there will likely be beer from Tobacco Wooden Brewing and mead from Starlight Meadery.

Hanna now works full time as a touring registered nurse. She simply completed her newest contract and took the month of March off to prepare for the pageant.

She credit her mother, an Military veteran and mom of six, with giving her energy and difficult her to be the most effective model of herself.

“She’s not one to give up at something,” Hanna stated. “She’s essentially the most highly effective lady I’ve ever met.”

Hanna stated the Vikings traveled and traded everywhere in the world, emphasizing you do not have to know or perceive Vikings to attend.

“It is all these tribal components of supporting each other and household that I believe folks will actually join with,” she stated.