Lebanon Valley Mall holds first Forged Viking Mead Fest

The Lebanon Valley Mall was full of costumes and vendors over the weekend for the first Forged Viking Mead Fest. People could stop by to shop, take part in several contests, or enjoy the entertainment.

The event was organized by several of the mall’s store owners, including the owner of the Drunken Smithy, Greg Ramsey. He said these special occasions bring more visitors to the mall and benefit everyone involved.

“The goal here is to bring this mall back to life,” Ramsey said. “Every time we throw events, we invite all my old friends from the Renaissance faire days, and they’re creating a little village here. We get a bunch of music, and fun people, then we can bring people into the mall, and we can have a great time and have a lot of community.”

Craftspeople set up tents throughout the center of the mall selling various products, often handmade. It ranged from jewelry to leather goods to chainmail. Ramsey said the goal was to uplift these artists by giving them the opportunity to showcase their work.

“We want to surround ourselves with art craftsmen — friendly people who are dying to create something, and they want to share it with people,” he said. “If you have free entry into a place, the people who benefit from that are the craftsmen and vendors, so we’re really passing on to all these people an amazing opportunity for them to make a little bit of money doing something they love, and you can tell they love to share it.”

He said they are looking at doing more themed events going forward, like Spookvember or a pirate festival.

Overall, for the first Viking festival they’ve organized, he said he was happy with the turnout.

Adventurer’s Hollow Gaming Tavern, a store and planned community hub that held its grand opening during the weekend festivities, co-hosted the event with the Drunken Smithy. The shop was previously available for guests to come in, play games, and purchase accessories for their campaigns, but it now offers food as well.

Read More: LV Mall’s new Adventurer’s Hollow game tavern offers food, mocktails, community

Owner Azcordelia Quinn said gamers can try something off the menu while they play. It will be plant-based comfort food that’s free of eight of the nine top allergens.

“We finally passed inspection, and we got the last of our construction done, and now we can actually offer the food that we’ve been talking to everybody about,” she said. “We’ve got handmade sodas, French press coffee, loose leaf tea. As we are open more, we’re going to be adding more baked goods to the menu.”

Adventurer’s Hollow is also changing based on customer feedback. If people aren’t comfortable speaking with an employee about their recommendations, there’s a suggestion box.

Quinn said the store has slightly shifted focus as they learned more and interacted with the community. Previously, they were highlighting their stock of games for purchase. They’re now mainly concentrated on selling the smaller items like dice, miniatures, and books, though they will still have a stock of games available.

She said they’ve started offering new games for customers to play for free based on recommendations.

“The one thing I didn’t expect from opening a game store was that people were going to come in with their own game from home and go, ‘Hey, so this is my game. Can we play it together?’” Quinn said. “It’s the sweetest, coolest experience.”

Above all, Quinn said Adventurer’s Hollow aims to be a community space in a world that is becoming more disconnected and more expensive.

She said she heard from one of her kids that he couldn’t go anywhere with his friends because he didn’t have extra money to spend. She wanted a place where people could gather for free, be welcomed no matter who they are, and find a community of people with similar interests.

For her, the Forged Viking Fest is just the beginning of the mall’s revival. She and other stores throughout the mall are interested in making more special themed events to get people together and bring foot traffic to the Lebanon Valley Mall.

“It’s been so much fun. I love being able to work with, especially everybody in the mall,” Quinn said. “It’s ways to get the community out, having a good time, interacting together, and having fun. I’m so fortunate that we came into the mall when we did because it’s really growing with all this really positive energy and just this desire to get everybody together.”