Up Helly Aa is the Shetland Island’s Viking Festival of Fire. Graeme Green shows how you’ll be assured a flaming good time!
From a distance, they look like a terrifying invading force about to raze the town, a noisy thousand-strong army of alcohol-fuelled men each carrying a flaming torch. The smell of paraffin fills the air and the light of their torches makes the night sky glow over Lerwick as they shout and march through the town.
Then they come closer and you see they’re not just Vikings, but a procession of tutu-wearing ballerinas, penguins, vampires, Canadian Mounties, apes and Pussycat Dolls with skimpy gold and pink lycra outfits stretched tight over their burly Shetlander bodies and beerguts – not quite so scary.
Shetland’s annual Up Helly Aa festival isn’t your average festival, then. The highlight of the local calender, it’s been taking over the capital, Lerwick, every year on the last Tuesday of January (Old Yule) since the 1870s with traditions such as ‘guizing’ (dressing up), drinking, brawling and rolling burning tar barrels taking place across the town. Since the 1960s, it’s become more of a celebration of the island’s Norse history (Vikings settled here in the ninth century after invading the islands).
The parade is just one part of it. At 10am, the festival kicks off with the Viking leader (or ‘Jarl’) leading the 50 ‘guizer’ squads and pipe and brass bands through the town, unveiling a Viking galley which has been several months in the making. There’s a Firey Sessions concert in the afternoon at the Garrison Theatre, where local musicians, including instrument-swapping musical families, and guest visitors show why Shetland and Scotland’s folk music has a worldwide reputation.
The evening parade, though, is when things start to really get going. The town gathers to watch the torch-lit procession of guizers as they arrive at the local park and encircle the specially made galley from earlier. They boisterously sing Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire and a traditional Up Helly Aa song, then throw their torches onto the boat. We watch it ‘burn, burn, burn’, children and teenagers in horned helmets running around the flaming centrepiece as the crowd disperses to drink and dance at parties around the town.
Tickets for these hall parties aren’t easy to pin down. Up Helly Aa is still highly valued as a community event for local friends and families to get together, rather than being a tourist attraction. Tickets for the Town Hall are the only official tickets sold to visitors, though it’s sometimes possible to arrange entry to private parties. Coming to the islands without pre-arranged tickets expecting to get into a party isn’t recommended.
I spend the night and early hours of the morning at the Town Hall. One by one, the 50 guizer squads arrive (they make their way around all the halls over the course of the night) to perform a short routine – dance, comedy, magic, drama or a chaotic drunken mix of all four. Knights joust, penguins boogie, Vikings sing Ring of Fire again at the top of their voices and a gang of giant monkeys dry-hump the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey in a scene that would make Stanley Kubrick turn in his grave, as beers and whiskies are drunk and the party carries on towards dawn.
Next morning, a little bleary-eyed, I look out of my window. Staggering down the street is a bearded ‘Pussycat Doll’ in a yellow PVC skirt and a giant penguin carrying his head under his arm, on the hunt for one last drink – not something I expect to see again in a hurry.
Essential information
WHEN TO GO: The next Up Helly Aa is on Jan 25, 2011.
GETTING THERE: Flybe (flybe.com) have direct daily routes from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness, with connecting flights available from Gatwick & Heathrow. There are daily ferries to Shetland from Aberdeen operated by Northlink Ferries (0845 6000 449; northlinkferries.co.uk)
GETTING AROUND: Lerwick’s a small town, easy to get around on foot. Buses go to other places of interest on Shetland – timetables available from the Tourist Information Centre in Lerwick.
going out A pint of beer costs around £2.80. Many of the Up-Helly-Aa events are BYOB. For tickets for Town Hall or private parties, contact the Up Helly Aa committee on information@uphellyaa.org. Tickets available from mid-December. Some accommodation providers offer hall tickets as part of festival packages. accommodation Hostels cost from £16.50 per person per night, B&B from £30 per person per night B&B and hotels from £50 per person per night B&B. For Up-Helly-Aa many accommodation providers require a minimum three-night stay.
SEE uphellyaa.org; visitshetland.com
Other winter festivals
Venice Carnival
When: February 26-March 8
Where: Venice, Italy
What: Don a mask and an ostentatious costume and join revellers in a deluge of balls and pageants in an Italian-styled Mardi Gras, which takes place in the eight days before Lent every winter.
Get more info: venice-carnival-italy.com
Las Fallas
When: March 15-19
Where: Valencia, Spain
What: Valencia marks the arrival of spring with this fabulous carnival, famed for its pyrotechnics, bonfires and parade of giant papier-mache figures that satirise movie stars and politicians.
Get more info: fallasvalencia.es
St Patrick’s Day
When: March 17.
Where: Dublin, Ireland
What: Paint a shamrock on your face and join in the celebrations of Ireland’s most famous patron saint in an epic bender that includes fireworks, a parade and plenty of Guinness to guzzle.
Get more info: discoverireland.com
