Tuesday 25th January 2011
Up-Helly-Aa festival
Aberdeen Press & Journal
Nearly 800 hours of hard work will go up in smoke on Shetland tonight as islanders celebrate the legendary Up-Helly-Aa festival.
A pristine Viking longboat – which received her final lick of paint just yesterday – will make her first and final journey today when she is paraded through Lerwick by the annual event’s chief guizers, the Jarl Squad.
Up to 5,000 people are expected to watch the dragon-headed vessel go out in a blaze of glory at 8pm when Guizer Jarl John Hunter calls for 1,000 paraffin-soaked shafts of wood to be thrown on board.
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Up Helly Aa
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