Avaldsnes Viking Festival 2027: June 11–13, tickets and how to get there
The Avaldsnes Viking Festival is held in early June at the Viking farm on Bukkøy, Karmøy, twenty minutes from Haugesund Airport on Norway's west coast. Avaldsnes was the seat of Harald Fairhair, Norway's first king, and the festival is the largest of its kind in western Norway, with more than 200 Vikings camping on the island and 9,000 visitors over three days in 2026.
Quick facts
Confirmed- Dates
- June 11–13, 2027
- Hours
- Friday 09:00 to 18:30, Saturday 11:00 to 18:30, Sunday 11:00 to 17:00 (2027). Friday is the day for school and kindergarten groups.
- Where
- Avaldsnes Viking Farm, Bukkøy, Karmøy, Norway
- Nearest airport
- Haugesund Airport (HAU), about 20 min
- From Stavanger
- 1 h 30 min by car via the Boknafjord tunnel
- From Bergen
- 2 h 30 min by car
- Organizer
- Historiske Avaldsnes
- Admission
- 200 NOK for adults in 2027, 160 NOK students and pensioners, 80 NOK under 16, free under 4. Family ticket 480 NOK. Valid all days.
- Payment
- Cards everywhere. Norway is close to cashless.
- Kids
- Yes. Archery, horseback riding, workshops, a children's theater show and a mock battle for children over eight.
- Dogs
- Not confirmed
- Camping
- Not confirmed
- Accessibility
- Not confirmed
- Language
- English spoken.
What happens
Avaldsnes is where the Norwegian kingdom began. The festival is held around the reconstructed Viking farm on the island of Bukkøy, a short walk from the Nordvegen History Centre and St Olav’s Church. Market, camp, staged fights, boat trips in a replica ship and a program of storytelling, music and workshops.
Friday belongs to schools and kindergartens, which arrive in groups from the morning. The weekend is for families, and on both Saturday and Sunday the Vikings stage a strandhogg, a raid from the sea: warriors jump from the ship Tyra and race ashore in front of the boathouse to fight the Vikings defending the island.
What visitors say
Reviewers describe Bukkøy as the setting that makes Avaldsnes: a quiet wooded island reached on foot from the history centre, with the farm buildings down by the water. During the festival it fills with more than 200 Vikings from Norway and abroad, and the organizer counted 9,000 visitors over the three days in 2026. Visitors mention the fights, the storytellers, archery and horseback riding as the things they did rather than watched.
The one reservation concerns ordinary days, not the festival. Outside festival time, more than one reviewer found the Viking farm smaller and quieter than the organizer’s photos suggest, and the history centre gets better marks than the farm. Boat trips to the farm from Haugesund run in summer and are reviewed well as a family outing.
Our take
Avaldsnes is the festival to pick if you are already on Norway’s west coast, and it pairs naturally with a Stavanger or Bergen trip. The combination of a real royal seat, a reconstructed farm on an island and a weekend of reenactors is hard to beat for atmosphere, and Haugesund Airport is twenty minutes away.
Go during the festival, not before or after it, and make it Saturday or Sunday if you can: that is when the raid from the sea is staged, while Friday belongs to school groups. And give the Nordvegen History Centre an hour; it is where the story of Harald Fairhair and the first kingdom is actually told.
Our take is based on visitor reviews, reenactor forums and the organizer’s own program, not on a visit. We say so because we think you should know.
Getting there
Haugesund Airport on Karmøy is twenty minutes away, with flights from Oslo and Bergen. From Stavanger, drive north through the Boknafjord tunnel, about an hour and a half. The site is signposted from Avaldsnes village; parking is at the history centre, and the farm is a walk of about a kilometer through the woods to Bukkøy. During the festival, parking is 30 NOK a day and free shuttle buses run between the car parks and the festival area.
Where to stay
Haugesund, fifteen minutes north, has the most hotels. Karmøy has campsites and cabins along the coast.
Sources
Visitor reviews on Tripadvisor, Fjord Norway and The Viking Herald, the festival’s own page for the dates, hours, prices, parking and the raid from the sea, the history centre’s site avaldsnes.info, and the organizer by email in September 2026, who confirmed the 2027 details and gave the 2026 visitor figures.
Past editions
- June 5–7, 2026 · Friday to Sunday. The organizer counted 9,000 visitors over the three days and more than 200 Vikings.
Last checked 2026-10-22 against the organizer's website: Historiske Avaldsnes. Dates can change; confirm before you travel. Back to Norway, near Stavanger or the full calendar.