It’s going to be a really big event at the Viking Ship Museum when the ship comes into the museum harbour at 2 pm on 9 August after its six-week voyage from Dublin to Roskilde.
The welcome party will not only mark the end of the experimental voyage from Roskilde to Dublin and back, but also be the culmination of 12 years’ work on the project Thoroughbred of the Sea.
“After our experiences with both the launch and the departure of the Sea Stallion, we are quite sure the welcome-home celebration will achieve visibility in the media and gain the attention of the wider population, both in Denmark and internationally. The welcome celebrations will help set focus on the local area and region and thus strengthen the tourism, both internal and international, that we are so dependent on. Out of the 150,000 visitors we receive every year, some 66% come from abroad”, explains Exhibition Manager Anne-Christine Larsen.
The museum will seethe with activity, including the Viking market, rich in tradition with real workshops and booths, and there will also be music from Palle Mikkelborg, Irish musicians and others, and films from the voyage will be shown on the day. The main attraction and its crew will have travelled nearly 3000 nautical miles in the course of the two years by that time, so they must receive a proper welcome home.
The Chairman of Zealand Regional Council, Kristian Ebbensgaard, justifies the large grant in this way: “The welcome celebrations are of special regional interest. We are talking about an exceptionally important cultural event, which can achieve considerable attention due to its professional quality. It has been exciting to follow the whole project over the last 12 years."
