Best of the fests: Up Helly Aa among world’s top 10

THEY stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the dancing camels of Rajasthan and the whirling dervishes of Konya. The axe-wielding, torch-hurling guizers of Lerwick now have another thing to toast with whisky and lusty Viking roars: Up Helly Aa has been named as one of the world’s top ten winter festivals.

The annual festival in the Shetland Islands, which marks the end of yule with a torch-lit procession and the ceremonial burning of a Viking longship, was one of only two European festivals among the list compiled by the British travel publication, Wanderlust.

Travellers planning a winter trip can now swither between the Shetland Islands where bearded men hurl flaming torches then dance until breakfast, and Chichicastenango, where their Guatemalan brothers twist rope around their waists then leap from a 30-metre pole in honour of the patron saint Tomas. Or even the Bikaner Camel Festival in Rajasthan in India, where the “ships of the desert” display hoofwork far nimbler than the majority of guizers in Lerwick by the end of a long night.

Up-Helly-Aa was placed fourth behind Fiesta de Santo Tomas, Chichicastenango in Guatemala, the Mevlâna Festival in Konya, Turkey, and the Festival in the Desert in Mali. It beat events like the Ice and Snow Festival in China, the Fiesta Grande in Chile and the La Tamborrada at San Sebastian in Spain.

Since it began in the 1880s, Up-Helly-Aa in the town of Lerwick has achieved worldwide recognition as Europe’s biggest fire festival, and has been augmented by a series of smaller gatherings throughout the region’s islands, with next year’s event due to take place on Tuesday, 31 January.

As the magazine explained: “Every year in January the villagers of Lerwick, Shetland, go more than a little mad. Thousands of wannabe Vikings take to the streets wielding flaming torches for a procession celebrating Shetland history. The procession culminates with the ceremonial burning of a life-size replica of a Viking longship built especially for the occasion. Following the burning of the galley the Vikings (or guizers), reunite and embark on 11 straight hours of drinking, dancing, performing and general frivolity.

“Visitors are warmly welcomed to view the event, but must keep in mind that it is very much a local celebration, and participation in the procession is reserved for residents only. Tickets are available for those who want to join in the post-procession festivities, but be quick, they’re popular and get snapped up quick! Don’t miss it.”

Up Helly Aa evolved from an earlier Christmas tradition, when teams of young men would haul barrels of burning tar through the streets on sledges. However, the practice was prohibited in the 1870s by the local authority, which instead permitted a torch-lit procession.

The first Christmas procession took place in 1876, while the first event at Up Helly Aa happened in 1881. It has continued every year every since; however, it was banned during the Second World War because of the shortages of timber for the Norse galley, paraffin for the torches and coupons for costumes. The exact meaning of the title is a matter of dispute but “Helly” is thought to refer to “Holy day”.

Yesterday Paul Riddell, editor of the Shetland Times, said he could understand the appeal of the festival to tourists.

“Up Helly Aa is the fire festival and all-night party that remains seared upon the memory of everyone who takes part. The spectacle of almost 1,000 men – no women please, this is 21st-century Shetland – parading through the darkened streets of Lerwick wielding flaming torches and singing their hearts out before setting fire to a replica Viking longship – next stop Valhalla – makes an impressive sight for visitors.

“But it’s really for the locals. To take part in the procession you have to have been resident in the islands for five years. After the entirely legal conflagration in the town’s King George V playing field, the guizers, led by the Jarl’s Squad, which in turn is led by the Guizer Jarl – it will be joiner David Nicolson in 2012 – can be seen clambering into buses and trucks. Amid music, song and the occasional dram they tour 11 halls in the town, which is where the women are, until breakfast time the next day.”

The craftmanship that goes into the Viking costumes worn by the Jarl’s Squad is exceptionally detailed and includes helmets, shields and axes. While the main event is held in Lerwick, nine other Up Helly Aa events take place across the Shetland Islands between January and March with women permitted to be guizers in some.

The local delicacy served during the evening is mutton soup and bannocks.

Yesterday Dan Linstead, editor of Wanderlust magazine, said: “A lot of people are quite pleased to get away from Christmas schmaltz, and we wanted to focus our attention on festivals in January and February.

“We loved the fact that there was this local festival, up in the Shetland Islands, with a hugely long and distinguished pedigree going back to Viking times and which is still being practised today. Everyone I have spoken to who has made it sound like a hugely dramatic spectacle, unlike anything else you can find in the world.”