One in 1,000 – there to blow the cold winter away

LIGHT-UP on Up Helly Aa night stays with you from one year to the other.

By 7:15pm, 1,000 men have congregated on Lerwick’s Hillhead, with the library on one side and the Town Hall on the other . An expectant buzz runs around the town centre, helping to mitigate against the cold, sleet, rain or whatever that year has chosen to throw down from the sky.

At 7:15pm, the street lights are extinguished. The thousand torches are lit, the spectacle is incomparable. My year as a guest in Graham Nicolson’s Jarl Squad was defined by the next few minutes.

The leader of the festival and his squad leave the Town Hall with Lerwick’s brass band and torch boys to march up the ranks; few moments compare with this.

Tony Stanger’s Grand Slam try in 1990 or Kenny Dalglish’s European cup-winning goal in 1978 still make the hair on my neck rise – so did marching up the ranks.

For the Jarl, it is the pinnacle of decades of commitment to the festival. For his squad, it is the cheers and best wishes of 1000 fellow guizers hell-bent on a great night ahead.

At 7:30pm, a maroon flares over Lerwick. This is the part people see on news bulletins. The procession lasts 45 minutes and culminates in the Jarl’s galley being set afire as he is metaphorically sent to Valhalla.

At 9pm time is young and 12 hours of partying is beginning. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.