Up Helly Aa’s roots are in the rowdy tar-barrel processions of Lerwick’s Christmas and New Year in the early 19th century, which the town council suppressed in the 1870s. They were replaced by an organised torchlight procession, first held on the festival day in 1881, and from 1889 by the burning of a Viking galley; the Guizer Jarl, the costumed chief who leads the festival, became its figurehead in the early 20th century. The Lerwick festival is run by the volunteer Up Helly Aa Committee and is the largest of about a dozen Up Helly Aas held across Shetland between January and March. It was not held in 2021 and 2022 because of the pandemic, and since the 2023 festival women and girls have been allowed to join Lerwick’s squads.
The day begins before dawn when the Bill, a satirical proclamation, is posted at the Market Cross. From 08:15 the Jarl Squad, in mail, helmets and shields, marches with the galley along the Esplanade and Commercial Street, poses for photographs at the Bressay ferry terminal, attends a civic reception and visits schools, the hospital and care homes; the galley stays on display at the ferry terminal until 18:00. At 19:30 the evening procession sets off from the Hillhead: roughly a thousand guizers in more than 40 squads, each with a lit torch, walk the galley to the burning site in about half an hour and throw their torches into it while the crowd, typically 5,000 or more, sings ‘The Norseman’s Home’. From around 21:15 the squads tour a dozen halls in rotation, performing sketches, dances and send-ups until the early hours; the following Wednesday is a local holiday.
The morning march, the evening procession and the galley burning are free public events watched from the streets. The halls are private celebrations for members and invited guests; a limited number of tickets for the Lerwick Town Hall are sometimes advertised late in the year. The Up Helly Aa Exhibition in the Galley Shed on St Sunniva Street shows past galleys, costumes and photographs outside the season, and Promote Shetland streams the procession live.
Shetland in late January is cold, dark and windy, and the night before the festival is often stormy. Ferries from Aberdeen (about 12 hours) and flights from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow to Sumburgh fill early, and Lerwick accommodation is booked many months ahead; book transport and lodging as soon as dates are confirmed.
