Up Helly Aa Viking Festival

Unique festival to honour the Vikings that once landed here

Up Helly Aa is a legendary festival in Scotland to celebrating the arrival of the Vikings. It’s an ancient festival of fire that has incorporated a salute to the Vikings who colonised this part of Europe in the 8th century. This part of Scotland remained a Norwegian province until 1472.

More than a thousand men march through the streets dressed as Vikings to commemorate the Norse Vikings that landed here in the 8th century.

The Up Helly Aa Viking Festival.

The Up Helly Aa festival includes a procession carrying torches, plenty of song and dance, and of course lots of drinking. The march leads towards the coast. And at the end of the festival, they throw their torches into a specially built replica of a Viking longboat, a galley, which then lights up in spectacular fashion, under loud cheers. The atmosphere of this festival is quite intense due to the many torches. Why not join them and experience it for yourself?

Fire is important at this Viking festival.

Where is the Viking Festival held?

The annual festival is celebrated in Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands in Scotland.

When is the Viking Festival?

Up Helly Aa takes place every on the last Tuesday of January.