Norse Forged Gathering: Festival ‘gets bigger and better’

SALISBURY — “It’s a one-of-a-kind experience.”
That’s what Jeremy Fulton said of Norse Forged Gathering, a biannual event that he started to include fantasy, adventure and lots of fun.

“It’s a festival of a bunch of blacksmiths and nerds. It’s the gathering of the nerds” said Patrick Creek, who serves as the logistics manager for the event, which is planned for Oct. 10-13 at the Rowan County Fairgrounds, 1560 Julian Road, Salisbury.

The festival will begin at 9 a.m. Thursday and conclude Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at norseforgedgathering.com or on the day of at the gate. Children, 12 and younger, will be admitted free.

Fulton shared that the event, which has grown each time it is held, began when he reached out to find others interested in playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons.

“I wanted to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons like I did when I was a kid, but I didn’t have anybody to play with,” he said.

So he put up a video on social media asking if anyone wanted to come to his big warehouse where he did his blacksmithing in downtown Salisbury several years ago to put together a game.

“The response was much more than I anticipated,” said Fulton. “We had 100 people all wanting to come and put together a massive game of D&D, and then it kind of just took off from there.”

This turned into people bringing food, which turned into a feast, he noted.

From there it became a gigantic Ren Faire in his warehouse, he said, going from 100 people to 500 and then 1,000.

“It just kept going. Every time we’ve done it, it’s just gotten bigger and bigger, and now it has taken on a personality of its own,” he said. “Now it’s like a massive nerd convention. It’s pretty awesome,” telling that it’s like a Ren Faire or a Comic-Con.

The event, which is held in the spring and fall, started out as a get together to do fun, nerdy stuff and those there said, ‘hey, we should make this a gathering,’ and so “that’s where we got the name from, Norse Forged Gathering,” said Creek.

At the last event, the numbers attending came to almost 5,000 people, said Fulton, something he hopes is repeated again at this fourth gathering.

Ninety-four vendors are scheduled to be at the event along with social media personalities, allowing people the chance to meet their favorites.

There will be many other activities including sword fighting, fire dancing, musicians, food, camping, card play and game play.

“We’ve basically created our own festival,” said Fulton, and “it just gets bigger and better every single time we do it.”

It’s not required, but those wishing to dress up may do so, said Creek, noting that people can dress as their favorite character from a story, video game, any media, books, “whatever you imagine your character to be, you can dress that way,” he said, and from any time period and style, whether it be sci-fi, fantasy, or whatever you want.

A new feature added this year, said Fulton, is an app they had developed for I-phones making this an interactive game where people go to different spots and complete various quests and activities and gain points. He said you can also build a character in the app and join a group and gain points this way as well to try to win in the overall competition.

Fulton said they were proud of the app, which combines a video game with real life.

“You have fun. It’s not just sitting there on your phone playing a game. You’re actually going out there and meeting people and interacting with the environment. It’s one of a kind,” he said.

These events are enjoyable, said Creek, and it’s a relaxing and fun atmosphere.

When asked about encouraging people to attend, Creek said the best answer he could share is that at the last gathering, Creek said that someone made the comment that they expected it to be “something weird and they ended up having a blast and planned on coming back.”

Creek said the man and his wife came because they wanted to see what it was about, and they brought back a group of people the next day.

Norse Forged Gathering is a family friendly event, said Fulton, with all ages invited.

“It’s a non-judgmental place for people to show up and kind of live out their fantasies,” he said. “A lot of us played video games growing up, and we always thought it would be so cool doing this in real life. We’ve just taken that and made it so.”

For a map, list of vendors and more information, go to norseforgedgathering.com.

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