Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Ridgewalker Brewing's Jeff Farrar referees armored combat at Viking Beer Fest 2024. Joe Sills Jeff Farrar raises a battle axe into the air as medieval flags surrounding a grassy ring waft in the last gasps of Oregon’s summer air. A throng of spectators begins to cheer as two men clad in head-to-toe steel plate steady themselves on opposite sides of the ring.
“Have any of you ever seen real armored combat?” Farrar shouts. Moments later, cheers shift to audible gasps as the two men collide in a cacophony of swords, steel and shields. For nearly two minutes, the two jab, slash, kick and wrestle in a three-round bout in front of a crowd that alternates between stunned and enthralled.
In few other places can the average reveler get so close to real armored combat; and though their blades are dull, the weapons and armor are real; the furious impact of metal on metal reverberating through the crowd like the rumble of a passing train. After the third round, the combatants embrace in a hug—a reminder that this version of medieval combat is just for show. Instantly, spectators begin to cheer and—following Farrar’s lead—raise glasses brimming with beer into the sky.
This is Viking Beer Fest. Now in its third year, the charity festival held to benefit non-profit organization Nordic Northwest has drawn around 2,000 beer lovers, history buffs and fantasy aficionados to a forested park on the southwest side of Portland. With .