What is it like watching Up Helly Aa with kids?

At 7pm, on the last Tuesday of January, the streetlights in Lerwick’s old town are turned out, and we stand in complete darkness. The bairns jump around excitedly, asking if the Vikings will be here soon. We are standing in front of the town hall.

In the darkness, light from within the building makes the stained glass windows glow with a vibrancy that can only be seen this night. We wait. Then, the doors open and the crowds surrounding us roar as the Jarl's Squad emerges and begins to line up along the street.

Their costumes are always incredible, the Guizer Jarl (or Chief Viking) chooses the imagery from people and sagas from Norse history. In 2025, the jarl Calum Grains became King Eystein Magnusson, and the costumes were a beautiful combination of brown, gold, red and purple.

The squad took time with the watching crowd, waving axes in the air, showing the beautiful details on their shields and posing for photographs. Then, it was time for them to light the first torches and bring in the galley. This is always a strange moment of quiet anticipation as the hands on the town hall clock creep closer to half past seven when a maroon lights up the sky, and the bairns can barely contain their excitement. They have been coming to Up Helly Aa since they were born, and they know what is coming!

Simultaneously, each squad of guisers lights their torches from flares and the darkness is banished by the glow. The heat is incredible, and the cold night air instantly warmed. After the spectacle of the Jarl's Squad passing, we watched the other guisers, marvelling at the incredible range of costumes. We saw the band Kiss, Scooby Doo lots of sparkling suits and flashing lights. The kids particularly enjoyed the walking watermelon!

As well as these more generally themed costumes, some guisers represent particularly well-known figures in the community or refer to local events. The longer I have lived here, the more I recognise and feel joy to be part of the Shetland community.

The guizers sing The Galley Song as they march, and some of the crowd sings along as they continue through the town. If you can find a high place to watch, you get an idea of the true scale of this event, the light from the torches forming a flowing river of fire illuminating houses, trees and the clouds above. Soon it is time for the burning.

The guizers circle the boat, the crowd cheers for the Guizer Jarl and Up Helly Aa. Then, each torch is thrown into the gally which is engulfed in flames. This is what the kids have been waiting for, seeing the outline of the longboat and torches in the flames, watching the patterns in the sparks.

Although the burning isn’t the end of the night – there are parties at halls that last the whole night – it is the end of the night for us, as I walk two very excited children to the car, knowing that for the next few days, all talk will be of fire and Vikings!