Up Helly Aa

Proclamation at Dawn

Da Galley on display at the harbour

Jarl being given freedom of the Town

Jarl Squad before drink

Mini Jarls

Torchlight - Galley approaches

Galley on the way to burning

Northern Lights!

Shetlanders like to dress up as birds!

Opening of Mareel or  White Elephant sketch

Northern Constabulary provide high profile protection for Lib Dem leader

Summer is coming or so they say on the last Tuesday of January in Lerwick as it doesn't get dark until after 4pm.  A 24-hour festival of fun starts at dawn with a Proclamation of what a squad of 'Vikings' would like to see done. This is a sort of shadow manifesto which has a bizarre satirical edge. After being given the freedom of the town, the newly appointed Jarl and the magnificently attired Jarl squad take charge and visit schools, the hospital and residential homes. Aileen had flown up to sample the event, we were turfed out of our rented house that had been let out well in advance to visitors and we stayed in the home of the parents of the rented house where we had spent much of the last three months,  They treated us like family. Aileen was shown how to cook Shetland specialities by Christine and we heard stories from Peter of his days as the captain of a fishing boat.

We attended the proclamation by the Jarl Squad at 7:30 a.am. and then joined Jonathan Wills, a Councillor and environmentalist who took us on a 2 hour boat trip to see the gannets and other seabirds on the cliffs of Noss. We attended the arrival of the Jarl Squad and greeting from the Council in the Town Hall and then watched the Jarl Squad and galley on its procession through Lerwick. In the evening they burn the galley, which they have lovingly built over many months, by towing it around the streets and then taking it into the children's play park and throwing almost a thousand torches into it. The Jarl squad were joined by forty-six other squads of up to fifty men (no women are allowed in Lerwick) who roam the streets dressed as White Elephants, Nuns, Puffins, Leprechauns, Nazis, Cheryl Cole or Baywatch Babes.  The women man the dozen or so community venues and provide refreshments and some sanity to the occasion.

The police are notable for their low profile, I saw only two police new recruits on duty and backup is 12 hours away in Inverness.  I suspect that some of the local police, like the firemen, are participants in the event.  If Up Helly Aa was proposed today as a new event it would be refused on fire regulations, processions through town centres, excessive drinking, health and safety and countless other of our overprotective regulations.  The fact is that it escapes by virtue of the whole event being self-regulated and having an impeccable safety record.  This despite 950 paraffin torches, equivalent to several million candles, being carried around a residential area in strong winds.

The procession resembles a giant conga, large men with axes followed by numerous squads of politically incorrect figures; the whole event is lubricated with good humour and bonhomie.  This makes it safer than a lot of professional sports and entertainment events or many business ventures in search of a quick profit.  And it is certainly a lot safer, as well as a lot more fun, than almost any town centre on a Friday night.

There is a rotating set of short performances in each of the 9 community halls performed by the 46 squads.  Many are sketches straight from the Monty Python school of silliness as can be seen in this sketch by Slantigirt Flabley in 2010.  This year, for example, one squad re-enacted the lady who put a cat in a wheelie bin in Bath but they put her in instead chased by a pack of dogs.  In a sketch about the new and spiringly expensive arts venue, the Mareel, a marquee was erected and then opened to reveal a herd of white elephants.  The Accounts Commission were portrayed as Dad's Army blustering their way around the Council and having about as much impact as Captain Mannering.

The halls stay open through the night until 9 a.m. the next day when the 950 revellers finish their visits to the halls and then have a few drinks. I took Aileen to Sumburgh the next morning, the roads were empty and the airport had the vibe of an institutional hangover. I went into the office and there were only a couple of people working. On my way back to the house ay 5:30pm I passed random Vikings, various animals and squads of buxom men in high heels stumbling home. Later in the evening, a series of hops allows a topping up of alcohol levels. It is Friday before Lerwick is back to normal, whatever that is.

To say this is the event of the year is an understatement - even Tesco is closed.