Viking festival LIVE: 'Up Helly Aa' in Scotland

Viking festival LIVE: ‘Up Helly Aa’ in Scotland

Watch live coverage of the annual Viking festival ‘Up Helly Aa’ in Scotland. It shows the torchlit evening procession and galley burning in Lerwick on the Shetland Islands.

Up Helly Aa – the biggest fire festival in Europe – is held on the last Tuesday in January in Shetland.

The spectacular annual event in Lerwick sees people celebrate Norse heritage.

The celebrations culminate in a torchlit procession and the burning of a replica Viking galley.

Up Helly Aa is a community event, with countless volunteers contributing many hours each winter towards organising and planning the following year’s festival.

The Guizer Jarl and the squad begin their preparations in February, and many long hours of hard work go into the design and production of their fabulous outfits.

The Up Helly Aa Committee begin the year preparing the Up Helly Aa Exhibition that runs from May until September in the Galley Shed. This boasts a full size Galley. Plus Jarl Squad suits, other Squads memorabilia and an extensive collection of photographs recording the suits worn and the guizers involved.