Up Helly Aa 2026

Up Helly Aa is Europe's largest fire festival — held on the last Tuesday of January in Lerwick, Shetland. A procession of up to 1,000 guizers (participants) in Viking costumes carry flaming torches through the streets before hurling them into a full-size replica Viking longship, setting it ablaze. The spectacle is extraordinary — a river of fire through the dark Shetland streets, culminating in a roaring inferno on the seafront. The festival celebrates Shetland's Norse heritage and has been held in some form since the 1880s. The Jarl Squad (the leading squad, who build and man the galley) spend months preparing their costumes and the ship. After the galley burning, the guizers visit halls around Lerwick for a night of entertainment, music, sketches, and dancing that continues until dawn. Getting to Lerwick in late January requires commitment — flights to Sumburgh or the overnight ferry from Aberdeen. Accommodation books up months in advance. The torchlit procession is free to watch from the streets. The hall visits are for guizers and their guests, but the public celebrations and the galley burning are the main event. One of the most viscerally dramatic events in the British Isles.