Organisers have cancelled the next Up Helly Aa festival in Shetland due to take place in January 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Organisers of the annual event said they took the decision to “ensure the festival does not contribute to the spread of Covid-19.”
It had been due to take place on January 26, 2021.
🔥Lerwick Up Helly Aa 2021, due to be held on Tuesday 26th January 2021, has been postponed for a year. The Lerwick #UpHellyAa Committee made the unanimous decision following consultation with key partners of the festival.
— Promote Shetland (@PromoteShetland) July 1, 2020
Read the full statement at https://t.co/UevDmhxR85
The event, which takes place in Lerwick on the last Tuesday of January each year, normally attracts visitors to the isles from around the globe, but is judged too risky to go ahead January coming.
READ MORE: Top Ten places to visit after lockdown according to The Chaotic Scot travel blogger
People dressed as Vikings march through the streets of the town to recreate its ancient Viking past, in a tradition dating back to the 19th century.
In a statement, the Up Helly Aa Committee said that key partners were consulted before coming to a unanimous decision.
It said: “The nature of Up Helly Aa, the numbers involved and the potential of large numbers of visitors to the isles are all risks that were taken into account.
“The festival going ahead in its current format would be difficult with any restrictions in place and with uncertainty surrounding what guidance would be in place in January, there was no guarantee the festival could happen at all.
READ MORE: Netflix enlists leading directors including Outlaw King's David Mackenzie
“The health and safety of the community, participants and the many volunteers it takes to deliver the festival was the priority of committee members when making the decision.”
Up Helly Aa revellers will need to wait until the year 2022 to partake in the next festival, scheduled for Tuesday January 25.
Highlights of the event include a march led by the Guizer Jarl, or chief guizer, culminating in a torch-lit procession and a replica longboat being set alight.
Each year volunteers work hard to build the galley boat and produce more than 1,000 torches.
Over the course of the night, festival-goers visit a host venues around the town.
Shetland and neighbouring Orkney were under Norwegian rule for about 500 years until they became part of Scotland in 1468.
The genesis of the festival dates back to the 1870s when a group of local men wanted to incorporate Shetland's history alongside Christmas celebrations.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here