Up Helly Aa

Up Helly Aa is a community event. Many volunteers give up a lot of hours across the winter to plan and organise each following festival. The organiser is the Lerwick Up Helly Aa Committee.

The next edition is confirmed for 26 January 2027 in Lerwick, Shetland. The date normally falls on the last Tuesday in January, though that rule is an estimate rather than a confirmed fact.

On the night, 11 halls open their doors. The Committee runs Lerwick Town Hall, and it is the only one that offers tickets straight to the general public, via the official website. People apply, and those who are successful are contacted. The ticket page shows £50 per ticket, but these access details are still an estimate, so check them with the organiser.

After the morning march, the Jarl Squad attends a civic reception in the Town Hall, where the Guizer Jarl is granted 24 hours' freedom of the town. The squad then visits schools, the hospital and eventide homes.

A junior procession is also held. The Junior Guizer Jarl and squad march to burn the 'peerie' galley, while the Guizer Jarl and the Jarl Squad cheer them on.

In the evening procession nearly a thousand guizers carry torches through the town behind the galley towards its burning, led by the Jarl Squad with the Jarl at the helm. Through the evening the squads visit the halls that open on the night and perform the acts they have prepared.

The Lerwick festival grew out of an older Yule custom of tar-barrelling, which participants took up around 1840. The organisers date its end to the early 1870s. Around 1870 some young Lerwick men with intellectual interests coined the name Up Helly Aa, gradually moved the celebrations to the end of January, and introduced more elaborate disguise and a torchlight procession.

The first festival leader was elected by fellow guizers in 1882 as Worthy Chief Guizer. In 1906 a Viking suit of armour was bought for the chief, who from then on was called the Guizer Jarl. Viking themes came in gradually: a galley appeared in the late 1880s, and a Viking Jarl Squad became a yearly part of the procession only after the First World War.

The Bill in the form known today was first produced in 1899 and was soon expanded with local jokes and satire. Up Helly Aa was halted for 6 years from 1914 because of the First World War. The galley design by Boatie Jeemie was first used in 1949, at the first festival after the Second World War, and every galley since has been built to the same dimensions. In 2023 guizers could for the first time organise their squads without gender restrictions.

The streetlights are switched off so the town is dark when the torches are lit, and the organisers describe the red glow as a phenomenal sight. Spectators line the procession route to cheer the guizers, and the organisers say that on a good night there may be more than 5 thousand of them.

The galley's colour changes every year at the Guizer Jarl's choosing, picked to complement the Jarl Squad suit. It is kept secret until it is unveiled on the day.

The organisers present the day as full of experiences, from watching the Jarl Squad parade through town with their galley following to the party mood in the halls at night.

During the day the Guizer Jarl and squad make a short visit to the Shetland Museum that the public can attend, a good chance to meet them and look closely at the suit.

Large crowds, including many school and nursery children, tend to gather to watch the morning marching and the photographs at the ferry terminal.

For the evening at Lerwick Town Hall, the organisers suggest staying to the end, as squads, including the Jarl Squad, perform throughout the night.