A Viking galley with Vikings in front of it. The photo was taken for this year's Up Helly Aa Festival in Lerwick, Scotland. It shows many men with shields and in Viking outfits in front of a boat. The picture was taken at the harbor. The ship has a dragon's head and is painted in white and blue.

Among Vikings - The Up Helly Aa Festival

by
Ingrid in the middle
AAAAAYYYYYYYYY - you can hear this cry almost all day long in the streets of Lerwick. The originator of the cry: a genuine Viking.

The wind whistled relentlessly around my ears while I was still trying to get rid of the shaky feeling under my feet. The ground seemed anything but stable. More than twelve hours on a ferry with three-metre-high waves takes its toll. There I was, somewhat lost, in the harbor of the small Scottish town of Lerwick.

There it was again: "AYYYYYYYYYY!!!". Although I could hear her scream, I couldn't see her (yet). So I set off in search of the Vikings. Yes, you read that right. The reason for my visit to Shetland Island was the Norse seafaring people. To be precise: the annual "Up-Helly-Aa" Viking Festival.

The approximately 7,500 residents of Lerwick take the event very seriously. They start preparing almost a year in advance. To be allowed to take part in the celebrations, you have to be a resident of Shetland for at least five years. The celebration is organized by an elected 17-member committee ("Guizers"). To be elected head of this committee (Guizer Jarl), you must have been a member of the Guizers for 16 years. Yes, the Up-Helly-Aa is strictly organized.

Organization is a top priority here: The "Up Helly Aa" participants have a schedule that they follow exactly. In Lerwick, they visit hospitals and the Shetland Museum as well as a number of venues. The Vikings are sometimes accompanied by a marching band or bagpipe music.

Thanks to this loud bagpipe music and the meticulous schedule, I bumped into some of the participants in a shopping center at nine in the morning. All in all, there are 981 participants this year, making Lerwick the Viking capital for a day. To be honest, I was a little intimidated at first. Standing there with my impressive height of 1.60 meters, I was surrounded by guys with steel helmets, in armour with shields and axes, who were a lot taller than me. The imposing men were very open and told me in their unmistakable Scottish dialect that they had a long day ahead of them. "Very few of them get to bed before 11 a.m. at the earliest," 38-year-old Rupert explained to me.

An older man with a beer in his hand. He is wearing a Viking outfit and holding a shield with rune motifs. The man has a white beard and glasses. He is wearing a golden helmet and fur on his outfit
A member of the Guizer Jarl's Squad. This elite is very difficult to get into.
A Viking with a shield and in full outfit. He is standing in a museum room. He is wearing a black and gold helmet, a wooden shield with a motif on it, heavy brown boots and a red cape. He is also wearing a long golden shirt.
Rupert Rastall is one of almost a thousand Vikings roaming the streets of Lerwick.

While the squad fortifies itself for the day with a hearty breakfast, the star of this year's festival is made ready: a specially built galley named "Byssen". In the late morning, it is pushed towards the harbor to the cheers of the Vikings and the youth group "Junior Guizer Jarl's Squad" in order to document this year's Up Helly Aa with photos for posterity.

There is an incredible amount of work behind the festival. In addition to the handmade galley, the costumes have to be made and 864 torches are needed for the grand finale in the evening. The residents and committee members do all of this themselves in their free time. They rely on donations, some of which come from local business people or from the committee itself.

A Viking ship. It is painted white and blue and has a dragon's head. You can see a number of signs, a mast and flags on the ship. It is being pulled through the street on wheels.
This ship was built especially for the Viking Festival - only to be burned late in the evening.
Several Vikings in their outfits and with axes and wooden shields parade through the streets. The sky is a little cloudy, the participants wear a red cape, a gold-colored outfit and brown helmets with black feathers.
The Up Helly Aa participants are all very committed.

The roots of the festival cannot be traced back to a specific year. While there were already processions with torches through Lerwick around 1870, there is no connection to Vikings until around the First World War. Over the years, the festival and its popularity grew. Finally, in 2023, the gender restrictions were lifted and female Vikings are now also an important part of Up Helly Aa.

A female member of the squad. She also wears a helmet, axe, shield and the same outfit as her male colleagues.
Up Helly Aa has been open to all genders since 2023.
A proclamation is also publicly displayed. Here are the goals of the Jarl.
The Vikings also draw up a proclamation every year, which is hung in the market square.

After the participants have marched through the streets all day, the grand finale begins at around seven in the evening. The street lights are switched off and the torches are the only source of light during the procession through the town. The highlight is then the burning of the specially made ship. In Viking times, when a ship's commander died, he was buried with his galley. However, it is of course more impressive when the ship goes up in flames, an employee of the Shetland Museum in Lerwick explains to me. There also has to be something for the visitors' eyes. Understandable. After the burning, the party continued in private. And perhaps even made plans for the Up Helly Aa 2026.

I can only speculate about that, because by that time I was already back on my favorite means of transport: the ferry. I took away many wonderful impressions and the realization that I will be back next year. If only to experience the burning of the ship for myself.

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Sources:

Conversations with members of the squad 

Interviews with Lerwick residents and tourists

Interview with an employee of the Shetland Museum and Archive

Press release of the Up Helly Aa 2025

Official Programs 2025

Photos:

All pictures were taken and published with the consent of the persons photographed.

Owner of the photos: Ingrid Müller

© 2026 Ingrid's Block. All rights reserved.

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