Thousands are expected to attend the third annual Mead on Main Viking Festival, set for Saturday, Oct. 1, along Main Street in Festus, organizer Dan Luck said.
There is no charge to attend the event, which will be held from noon to 9 p.m. or so both inside and behind Four Brothers Mead, 124 E. Main St., the festival sponsor.
The business, which makes and sells mead, often referred to as honey wine, received a grant from the Festus Tourism Commission to help promote the event.
“We expect at least 5,000,” said Luck, an owner of Four Brothers Mead. “It’s become coast-to-coast (as far as drawing in attendees). Not just patrons, but the vendors. There will be a lot of people coming to Festus for this.”
He said several dozen vendors will sell handcrafted goods, many of them Viking themed.
Festivities will include blacksmithing demonstrations by past contestants on the History Channel’s “Forged in Fire” blacksmithing challenge show, ax-throwing, belly dancing and Viking re-enactments, such as hand-to-hand combat by the St. Louis Chapter of the Legion of Honor, an international fight club, Luck said.
Four Brothers Mead will offer its wares, and several food trucks will be on hand, he said.
“We’re going to sell mead slushies,” Luck said. “This is new.”
Festival attendees also will have the chance to see something unusual, he said.
“We are having a real Norse-Viking wedding,” he said. “There’s a special type of ceremony. It’s a couple that’s actually getting married. That should come off about 5 p.m.”
Luck said the festival also will feature live music.
“We’ll have six bands on two stages,” he said. “We’ll have two bands playing simultaneously.”
Bands scheduled to perform are Fry Project, Dr. Fong and the Long Brothers, the Rockwood Boys, Chad Steven Stafford, Shakey Deal Trio and John Jarrett Littlefield.
“They all play variations of rock,” Luck said. “The Shakey Deal Trio is a Neil Young cover band.”
For more information, go to fourbrothersmead.com or visit the Four Brothers Mead Facebook page.
