In Pictures: Barbie bog snorkels and flaming vikings – the quirkiness of 2023

Here are some of the quirkiest and most upbeat scenes from up and down the UK in 2023.

From booting a “bottle” in the land’s oldest sport to bog snorkelling while dressed as Barbie – complete with box – and from swimming in mud dressed as the titular character from Where’s Wally? to setting fire to a viking boat for a flaming good Norse festival, it is safe to say 2023 has not just been a year of Rwanda rows and cost-of-living fears.

Whitby in Yorkshire hosted the Krampus Run, which celebrates the creepy Alpine creature said to scare naughty children, while women took part in the Lerwick squads at the Up Helly Aa fire festival in Shetland for the first time.

Two Leicestershire villages competed in the Hallaton Bottle Kick contest, thought to be Britain’s longest-running sporting event, while in Scotland, St Andrews University students kept it clean for the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight.

Here are some of the quirkiest and most upbeat scenes from up and down the UK in 2023, captured through the lenses of PA news agency photographers.

Rude Health World Bogsnorkelling Championships 2023 – Wales — A woman dressed as Barbie, the doll from one of the year’s biggest films, takes part in the Rude Health World Bog Snorkelling Championships at Waen Rhydd peat bog in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales, in August (PA)

Maldon Mud Race 2023 — A woman and man, dressed as Wally from the Where’s Wally? books, take part in the annual Maldon Mud Race, a charity event to race across the bed of the River Blackwater in Essex, in May (PA)

Annual Football River match — Players challenge for the ball during the annual traditional River Windrush football match, which has been taking place for more than 100 years, in the Cotswolds village of Bourton-in-the-Water, Gloucestershire, in August (PA)

Whitby Krampus Run — Krampus is said to terrify naughty children during the festive season (PA)

Shrove Tuesday Atherstone Ball Game 2023 — Men take part in the 823rd Atherstone Ball Game in Warwickshire in February. The game honours a match played between Leicestershire and Warwickshire in 1199, when teams used a bag of gold as a ball (PA)

Up Helly Aa festival — Women took part in the festival, which dates back to the 1880s and celebrates Shetland’s Norse heritage, for the first time in 2023. Here, youngsters take part in the Junior Up Helly Aa (PA)

The Pentacle Drummers perform in front of a burning wicker man during the Beltain Celtic Fire Festival at Butser Ancient Farm, in Waterlooville, Hampshire, in April (PA)