Up Helly Aa 2027: Dates, Where to Celebrate and Travel Tips

Lerwick's Up Helly Aa 2027 is on Tuesday 26 January 2027, the last Tuesday of January ^{1 2}. The committee's own 2027 page confirms the date, and Shetland.org lists it with the festival running for 24 hours ^{1 2}. Junior Up Helly Aa is on the same day ²⁰.

Because the rule is "last Tuesday in January", the date moves between 25 and 31 January with the calendar, not with a lunar or religious cycle ¹. The previous edition fell on Tuesday 27 January 2026, so anyone searching for Up Helly Aa 2026 will find the same Tuesday logic ¹¹.

The day opens early and ends late. The Bill, a hand-painted satirical notice, stands at the Market Cross from 06:00 until 17:00, and the first hall visit of the night starts at 21:15 ¹. The organisers do not publish the Guizer Jarl's identity or the squad lists before the event: the committee says it is a secret until then ¹.

Shetland has ten fire festivals running from January to March, so a missed date is not a missed trip. The NorthLink listing gives Scalloway on 8 January 2027, Nesting and Girlsta on 5 February 2027, Bressay on 5 March 2027, South Mainland on 12 March 2027 and Delting on 19 March 2027 ¹⁸. Two of its other entries do not match its own stated rules, so check Uyeasound and Norwick with their committees before booking.

• Lerwick date: Tuesday 26 January 2027 ¹

• Light-up time: 19:30 ¹

• Date rule: last Tuesday of January, every year ¹

Tip: Treat the Monday as part of the festival. The ferry that leaves Aberdeen on Sunday evening arrives at 07:30 on Monday, giving you a full day to settle in before the Tuesday ¹².

The Lerwick Town Hall late night is the only hall that sells tickets to the general public through the committee's website, and it works by application, not first-come purchase ³. The committee says successful applicants are contacted in due course about payment and collection ³.

In the 2026 round the ticket cost 50 GBP, the event ran from 21:00 to 09:00 and doors opened at 20:30 ³. That round opened in December 2025 and is closed, and the 2027 round has not been announced, so watch the committee's ticket page in the autumn ³. Once inside, seating is first-come, first-served, so arrive early ³.

The house rules are specific. You bring your own drink and plastic cups, drinks go to a designated room for pouring and bottles are not allowed in the main hall ³. Footwear that could damage the main hall floor is restricted, and the page gives a heel measurement, so read it before you pack shoes ³. Food and live music run all night, with squads performing and the Jarl Squad visiting ³.

Every other hall is private. The committee states that ticketing for the other halls is handled directly by their hosts and hostesses, and that it has no tickets to give out ⁴. Attendees are invited guests who also help run the hall, though a limited number of visitor tickets may be advertised in the Shetland Times late in the year ⁴. Shetland.org calls hall tickets extremely limited and points rural festival seekers to each event's own Facebook page ¹¹.

The Galley Shed is an exhibition, not a ticket. It opened in 2026 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 18:30 to 20:30 and on Saturdays from 14:00 to 16:00, from May to September, and the page says nothing about opening on the festival day ¹⁰. Plan to see it in summer, not on 26 January.

• No ticket needed: morning march, evening procession ²

• Application only: Lerwick Town Hall late night ³

• Invitation or host-controlled: every other hall ⁴

Tip: Jarl Squad selfie sessions were ticket-only in 2026 and usually go quickly, so watch for announcements from the committee and Shetland.org ¹¹.

Lerwick is reached from Aberdeen by NorthLink's overnight crossing or by Loganair flights into Sumburgh Airport, 31 km south of the town ^{12 15}. The festival itself sits in the town centre: light-up is on the Hillhead outside Lerwick Town Hall and Lerwick Library, and the galley burns in the King George V playground opposite Lerwick Flower Park ¹¹. Lerwick is Shetland's largest settlement, with 6,709 people at the 2022 census, at roughly 60.155N 1.145W ¹⁷.

The ferry leaves Aberdeen at teatime from Jamieson's Quay and reaches Lerwick at 07:30 the next morning, a distance of 216 miles by sea ¹². MV Hrossey and MV Hjaltland share the route, one sailing direct in about 12 hours and the other calling at Kirkwall, which makes the trip 14 to 15 hours ^{12 14}. Pick the direct sailing if you can. The 2026 low-season single fare was 29.00 GBP for an adult, 3.50 GBP for a reclining seat, 18.00 GBP for a pod and 78.00 GBP for an inner 2-berth cabin, and a return is double the single ¹³.

Sumburgh is quicker. Loganair flies there year-round from Aberdeen, Belfast City, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Kirkwall and Manchester ¹⁵. The airport is 20 miles (31 km) south of Lerwick and about 25 miles (40 km) by road, and service 6 buses link it with town seven days a week ¹⁵. Low cloud and fog are frequent, and runway barriers on the A970 close whenever a flight lands or takes off ¹⁵. ZetTrans lists a 3.60 GBP sample adult fare from Lerwick to Sumburgh and a 2 GBP fare cap running until January 2027 ¹⁶.

Once in town, nothing is far. The Bressay Ferry Terminal, Market Cross, Hillhead and Town Hall are all on the Jarl Squad's walking route, and the Viking bus station is the hub for onward services ^{1 16}. Because the procession closes streets and the burning ground is closed to the public, plan to walk back from the Hillhead on foot and check late-evening bus options with ZetTrans before you rely on them ¹⁶.

Tip: Book the ferry early, since NorthLink warns that cabins and vehicle spaces fill quickly ¹⁴.

The 2027 programme runs from the 06:00 Bill at the Market Cross to the first hall visit at 21:15 ¹. The committee lists the Jarl Squad marching from Islesburgh Community Centre at 08:15, reaching the British Legion at 09:00 and leaving at 09:40 for the Esplanade and Commercial Street ¹. The squad finishes at the Bressay Ferry Terminal for photographs, with the area cordoned for official pictures, and leaves for the civic reception at 10:30 ¹.

The afternoon is school and care visits, with the Shetland Museum stop at 15:30 ¹. The galley sits at the Bressay terminal until 18:00 and is then taken to the Hillhead ¹. Junior Up Helly Aa processes first, with its peerie galley burned at King George V Park, and the official day timetable puts its start on the Hillhead at 17:30 ^{6 20}.

The senior procession is the centrepiece. At 19:15 the Guizer Jarl's squad passes up the ranks to the front, and at 19:30 a maroon signals the lighting of more than 900 torches ⁶. Dragging the galley to the burning site takes about half an hour, and the Guizer Jarl leaves the galley before the torches are thrown in ². No members of the public or press are allowed in the burning site ⁶. After that, more than 40 squads visit about a dozen halls through the night, with each squad performing an act at each hall ².

The galley is 9.2 m long, 1.8 m wide and carries a mast 6 m high and a dragon head 3.5 m high ⁸. Volunteers build it from the end of October, two nights a week, and its colour is chosen by the Guizer Jarl and kept secret until the day ⁸.

The festival's roots are less ancient than it looks. It grew out of Yule tar-barrel dragging in the mid-nineteenth century, when rival groups clashed in the narrow main street, and the young men themselves decided it was time for a change ⁹. They renamed the festival, moved it to the end of January and added guizing and a torchlit procession, and Viking themes arrived later with the galley and the Guizer Jarl ⁹.

• Public: morning march, evening procession, galley burning viewed from outside ^{2 11}

• By ticket or invitation: Town Hall, other halls, civic reception ^{3 4 6}

• Not for visitors: squads and procession places, which need five years' residence in Shetland ⁵

Lerwick in January is cool, wet and windy, with a mean daily maximum of 6.1 C and a mean minimum of 2.2 C in the 1991-2020 normals ¹⁷. The same normals give 150.4 mm of precipitation, 27.4 hours of sunshine and about 10 snowy days across the month ¹⁷. The record low is -8.9 C and the record high is 12.8 C, so the swing is wide ¹⁷.

Daylight is short. Lerwick has about 5 hours 49 minutes of daylight at the winter solstice, and the festival falls about five weeks later, so the morning march finishes in weak light and the evening procession is entirely in the dark ¹⁷.

Arrive before 19:00. Shetland.org recommends getting to your viewing spot a little before 7pm, since light-up is at 19:30 and the streets are cordoned during the procession ¹¹. The squads muster on the Hillhead from 19:00 and spectators can number more than five thousand ⁷. After the burning there is nowhere obvious to stand warm unless you hold a hall ticket.

Pack for an hour standing still, not a walk. Wind off the harbour makes the air feel colder than the thermometer says, and rain can blow in sideways between the buildings on Commercial Street. Standing on the Hillhead slope for the 19:00 muster and the 19:30 light-up means more than an hour without moving, so choose boots over trainers and keep a spare pair of dry socks in your bag.

• Layers: thermal base layer, wool mid-layer, windproof and waterproof shell

• Feet: waterproof boots with grip for wet pavements and the Hillhead slope

• Hands and head: gloves and a hat, since you will stand still for the light-up

• Extras: a small torch for the walk back and a power bank, since cold drains phone batteries

Note: The torches are lit in the dark and drop sparks, so keep hoods and scarves away from the flames and follow the stewards' instructions at the cordon.

Lerwick accommodation books up months in advance for the festival, according to Shetland.org, so reserve as soon as you have chosen your ferry or flight ¹¹. The town has a limited supply of guest rooms, and the committee states that it cannot help with accommodation enquiries ⁵.

Stay in Lerwick itself if you can, because the Hillhead, Town Hall and Esplanade are central and you can walk to the procession and back without relying on public transport on a day the services run holiday patterns ¹⁶. A room near the Hillhead means you can return to rest between the afternoon visits and the evening procession, and dress for the cold properly.

If town is full, widen the search. ZetTrans lists Scalloway with a 2.30 GBP sample adult fare from Lerwick, which makes it a possible base for the festival period ¹⁶. Sumburgh sits at the airport end of the island and is best suited to people on early or late flights ¹⁵. Remember that buses run altered patterns on Up Helly Aa, so confirm the return before you commit to a base outside town ¹⁶.

Another option is the ferry itself. NorthLink offers cabins for your exclusive use, with en-suite showers, and the 2026 low-season price for an inner 2-berth cabin was 78.00 GBP ¹³. If you arrive on the Monday morning sailing, your first night is already booked.

Shetland.org also suggests that anyone who cannot find a Lerwick room should pair a winter trip with one of the rural fire festivals, which are smaller community events run by volunteers ¹¹. Those festivals do not promise hall tickets for visitors, so ask each committee ¹¹.

• Book first: Lerwick rooms or ferry cabins

• Fallback: a base in Scalloway or elsewhere on the Mainland, with a confirmed return route ¹⁶

• Do not rely on: the committee for lodging help ⁵

A local survey found that Virgin Media O2 gave the fastest download at 17 of 20 test sites in and around Lerwick, from about 30 Mbps up to 74 Mbps near Mareel ¹⁹. The sites ran from Gulberwick to Gremista and the town centre, and Vodafone was fastest at two locations and EE at one ¹⁹. Vodafone performed worst in Lerwick, which surprised the surveyor ¹⁹.

EE told Shetland News that demand on its network in the Lerwick area can affect performance for its customers at peak times, and Vodafone said it was working to boost coverage around the town ¹⁹. A packed Hillhead at 19:30 is exactly that sort of peak, so expect slower uploads while the procession passes.

The practical lesson is to know which network your SIM or eSIM actually uses. A United Kingdom eSIM that roams on an O2-compatible network matches the survey, and you can install it at home before the ferry or flight, then switch it on at the airport or terminal.

Prepare for the gaps. Download offline maps of central Lerwick, download the ZetTrans app and timetables before you lose signal, and save the Town Hall confirmation as a screenshot ^{16 3}. Send your messages before the maroon at 19:30 rather than during the procession ¹.

• Before the ferry: install your eSIM and save tickets offline

• At 18:30: share a location pin with your group

• During light-up: expect slow uploads and keep messages short

Tip: If you want to watch the stream while standing in the crowd, load it before 19:00 instead of waiting for light-up ¹¹.