Michigan Nordic Festival draws in thousands as burning ship steals the show
If you ever find yourself driving through the small town of Charlotte, Michigan, (population 9,209), located 20 miles southwest of Lansing, during the last weekend of February, don’t be surprised at a sight of something you might have never seen before.
It’ll either make you turn off South Cochran Avenue and back out of town or it will make you want to know who are these people walking around with metal helmets, swords and shields, fur cloaks, jackets, boots and other elaborate clothing?
“Well, we definitely did not set out to be another Renaissance festival,” said Bryan Myrkle, 50, of Charlotte, who is the chairperson of the Michigan Nordic Fire Festival that started back in 2016 on the Eaton County Fairgrounds. “This weekend, we had a tug of war between a bunch of Vikings and some young local football players. I don’t know if you’d see that at a Renaissance festival,” Myrkle said laughing.
Years ago, he and two other friends were trying to think of an idea for a winter event in town, and " 'Game of Thrones' was still big and popular, so we came up with a Viking festival.”
They weren’t sure how it was going to take off or be received. “We just funded it on our credit cards, crossed our fingers and hoped that it would take off and it sure has,” said Myrkle.
Since then, the festival has grown so much that the town increases around 50% in size.
Last weekend’s three-day festival had an attendance of 13,400 with many coming from Michigan, some as far away as Florida and Texas and some states in the upper Midwest.
The opening ceremony and signature event is the burning of a hand-built Viking ship that draws the big crowds on Friday evening. “When we originally sat down to figure this all out, they were like, ‘Can we do something like Burning Man?’ and I was like, ‘what the hell is Burning Man?’ " said Tim "Olaf Thorson" McCumber, 51, of Charlotte, “and they explained it to me and I was like ‘well, the Vikings use to burn ships, I guess we could burn a ship?' ”
McCumber, who has been building the Viking ships by hand since that first festival in 2016, knows his handiwork doesn’t last long during the Friday night burning ceremony. His creations go up in flames in a half an hour but he doesn’t mind. “I enjoyed making it, it draws people into the festival, and I enjoyed the crowd watching it burn,” he said.
This year’s 14-foot-long ship was made from oak and southern yellow pine and McCumber started gathering materials and designing it in December and, with the building process, he estimates it took him 100 hours to build.
Before the burning, festival organizers ask people to write a wish on a slip of paper, whether it’s something to wish away or a dream they wish could come true and put it in the wish box inside the ship. When the ship burns the wishes go up with it, “maybe it means something different to every person that’s there, it’s meaningful and they turn it into what they want this ceremony to be,” said Myrkle.
The one thing that the ceremony is not with all the costumes and fire is anything political, religious, or pagan leaning, “None of it has any real meaning in history it’s just kind of faux ceremonial. We’re just trying to do something where people can come and be who they want to be, look how they want to look. We’re just trying to have fun.”
The Michigan Nordic Fire Festival is always held the last weekend in February. Check its website in late 2023 for the exact date and times for the 2024 festival www.michigannordicfirefestival.com/
Eric Seals of the Detroit Free Press can be reached at eseals@freepress.com and followed on Twitter and Instagram @ericseals.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Nordic Festival draws in thousands as burning ship steals the show
