It is an honour and privilege to be selected as the Guizer Jarl to lead one of Shetland's Up Helly Aa fire festivals. This is how it feels to be Chief Viking for a day...
Each year Shetland’s winter nights are lit up by a series of spectacular fire festivals, led by a chief Viking known as the Guizer Jarl.
The oldest and biggest Up Helly Aa takes place in Lerwick on the last Tuesday in January.
Preparations take over a year, with the Guizer Jarl and their squad creating remarkably detailed suits, revealed on the day of Up Helly Aa. Guizer Jarl in 2024, was Richard Moar, who looks back on his day in the torchlight.
I joined the Up Helly Aa Committee in October 2008 – the new committee members are elected at a Mass Meeting of Guizers. The Committee consists of 17 volunteers who organise and run the festival in their spare time. From when you join until your day as Guizer Jarl it is 16 years!
Each Guizer Jarl represents a differend historical Viking figure, and I started to research my saga in 2019 as I was originally due to be Guizer Jarl in 2022. Typically, we want to make samples for our suits 18 months beforehand so that the year before we can know what we are doing and can focus on making the suit and all its elements.
The year before (2023) was very busy, the squad worked on our suits two nights a week initially and more as we approached the winter. We commissioned a specialist company for metalwork on our shields and another to make our brooches and belt buckle. The rest of our suit we made and assembled ourselves. There was a huge number of hours put into the suit, the squad were deservedly proud of what we created.
On the Tuesday of Up Helly Aa I woke at 05:30.
My first visits were to the Galley Shed and Torch Boys were at 07:00. I met with The Jarl's Squad after this before our public engagements started at 08:15, marching down King Harald Street.
I went to bed 09:30 on Wednesday, the fastest 28 hours of my life!
During Up-Helly-Aa day we had many visitations during the day including to schools and hospitals. Following the torchlit procession, we visited the 11 halls from 21:30 to 07:30. We then went for coffee and a breakfast roll to finish our day!
The day was full of memories for me, my family and the Jarl's Squad.
There are so many highlights:
Every where we went people were delighted to see us, the receptions we received were exceptional.
There was a real feeling of joy and excitement throughout the town.
I’m afraid words cannot describe it – it was very a unique and breathtaking experience.
My galley was named Ethena after my daughters Bethany and Jenna.
I was very proud of my galley and the stunning work of the galley painters creating the colours.
Burning the galley is the climax of the procession it is a highlight of the day but also marks the start of the next part of the day – the Halls!
Leading the festival is a privilege and honour, at times it was very surreal, the entire day (and the year proceeding) was a phenomenal experience!
My family and friends were huge parts of this and sharing the day as well as the build up was special.
Up-Helly-Aa day is very busy, there is a lot happening in a short space of time. You need to plan your day and where to locate yourself, pre-planning or recce beforehand will help.
One of the best opportunities to see the Jarl's Squad is as they march from the Royal British Legion at 09:40 along the Esplanade and over Commercial Street. There is a lot of excitement and it is very busy.
Similarly for the Procession, get familiar with the route in daylight and plan where to stand. It is busy and remember you cannot cross the road as there will be burning torches!
One of the best opportunities to see the Jarl's Squad is as they march from the Royal British Legion at 09:40 along the Esplanade and over Commercial Street. There is a lot of excitement and it is very busy.
Up-Helly-Aa is a great tonic for winter in Shetland. During the summer months we have lots of daylight however in the winter there is limited sunlight.
Having the focus of Up-Helly-Aa to look forward to and work towards is a great distraction as well as a lot of fun.
Working together over the winter brings people together and a huge number of volunteer hours go in to making the galley, the torches, Jarl's Squad suits, squad suits and practising the acts you see performed in the halls, which couldn't happen without the amazing hall hosts and hostesses.
My role in 2025 is the Chief Marshal, I am in charge of the whole event. Having had my day as Guizer Jarl last year my role this year is to organise the day and festival for this year's Jarl – Calum Grains.
In future years I look forward to welcoming my fellow committee members in to the Ex-Jarls Association. I expect each year will rekindle memories of my own day.
Make your own memories and start planning your visit to one of Shetland's amazing Up Helly Aa festivals.