Not to be a Viking slave?

[Newusernameaug]

This weekend I volunteered at a Viking Festival. Tickets were £20 daily. The deal was supposed to be volunteering in exchange for entrance fee.

9am Saturday I was told I’d be on until 9pm doing shifts every hour for an hour with a 1 hr break each time and duties were to clean all the toilets and do gate duty.
I was also told that if I wanted to join the Viking reenactment group I would have to work as a ‘space’ for the group for around one year until I have proved myself and then am upgraded to a ‘free man’.

I told them no thanks - I did 4 hours work which I felt was more than equitable and then left as the organisers were being rude and off with me because I refused to work as their slave!

And they actually used the terms slave and free man. Not sure if this is normal for the reenactment camps but I saw another volunteer working non stop, they so desperate to fit in and belong, it made me worry vulnerable people were being used tbh as they’re were very pushy with it and it’s a bit intimidating when you’re all there in a field in the middle of nowhere and everyone has giant axes!!

AIBU for telling them to get stuffed (but doing a fair shift)
YABU - I should give myself as a slave to the Vikings (for the weekend!)

Who do you think should clean toilets? I'm not picking you out specifically but toilets have to be cleaned and considering it was an event run by volunteers toilets the event space needs to be maintained including toilets

Excuse my overuse of the word toilet 😃

it’s standard for new people to start at the bottom of the social order and work their way up.

This is how lots of groups or societies work, unless you come in as a celebrity. Entirely your choice.

You were lucky, they traded me on the slave market and I ended up being tied to an oar for 3 years. Anyway, I got to travel.

3 of the men joked they were kidnapping me and I wouldn’t be seen again so was starting to be glad I was getting out of there before it got dark! Lol

Absolutely but the organising / management team should handle that - not outside volunteers who have come to support their organisation in holding a public event.

you don’t give the worst jobs to the volunteers otherwise people just don’t volunteer again - and I’ve both worked as a volunteer and help organise events.

Yes maybe help out but I was the only person on female toilet duty the whole day whilst none of them (the reenactors) would have to clean them - as they weren’t slaves I guess!

I realised the viking reenactment groups were particularly known for trying to "recreate" a certain heirachry that there's even contradictory evidence of. Basically the "higher ups" gave off a vibe of living out their personal fantasies of being in charge/ popular/ social even dodgy sexual undertones.

As reenactor and a woman I learned to avoid certain groups.

Is the festival in a seaside town on the West coast of Scotland?

Sound kinda like Stanford prison experiment - taking things a bit far. I think it’s ok to have volunteers doing jobs, but toilet cleaning should either be paid or shared out equally. And volunteers should know in advance exactly what they are signing up for. I think it’s weird the hierarchy thing - fine, play a role, but this shouldn’t spill out into social interactions or duties in the logistics and management of the festival. In fact, I’d expect some high up , experienced organisers to be peasants to answer volunteer questions and supervise etc.

I’m not a re-enactor btw. But I have cleaned toilets and showers as a volunteer.

You never can tell! 😂😂😂

No but close by! Near the NW coast of the Lake District….

Yes I wondered this! I don’t know how to quite describe it…… but it felt like a lot of the men hadn’t seen a woman before and perhaps had been on some Viking expedition and now just wanted to drink, fight, party and you know what!!

that’s why one night was enough for me, I wanted to keep my Viking modesty before I was involved in some kind of sex slave orgy 😂

A 12 hour shift for a £20 ticket is insane. By comparison, if you volunteer as a HCP for a big festival, where tickets are £100s, you usually get a 3 day pass in exchange for 2 or 3 shifts of 4-6 hours.

In fairness, tho, Glasto is big on stoned crusties and short on hot Vikings.

Many many years ago I worked with a woman who used to do re-enactment with her partner. I thought it sounded really interesting until she showed me the photos of one of the weekend. He had a great old time in a very glam outfit up on a big horse having pretend battles, while she sat around the fire with the other women making bread in a revolting sackcloth pinafore.

I'm a English Civil War reenactor as a musketeer and I love it. I don't consider myself weird at all. Just love history and portraying it to the public.

I cross dress as a musketeer as a bit of Roundhead bashing is a great stress reliever after a hectic week at work

I've a friend who is into this (and is northern and possibly the same lot, they do seem VERY strict...)..

I think the idea is to weed out those who think they fancy it but will drop out awkwardly after a short while. If you can stick the crappy jobs and slave work, then you're much less likely to drop out as things get easier.

I suspect you should have done more research on the group before going, but sometimes these things are a bit 'suck it and see!'.

I think it depends on which group you're talking to. I've heard some nightmares about various reenactment groups of all periods where they expect you to start on the bottom rung and act it.
Its well worth trying to meet the group first if you get a chance to scope things out.
Do you feel like naming and shaming the event so we can watch out for them?

I went to my first event with our local Viking group a few weeks ago and yeah when you start out your a thrall but there's no obligation to slave around (I did some water carrying helped out around camp but the atmosphere was more a social for enthusiasts) and I can see that unless you're trained there's not much you can do from a H&S perspective.
Still seems odd to expect you to clean toilets as part of stewarding.

I hope this hasn't put you off of the idea completely as reenactment can be a great laugh.

I loved that advert!