Scalloway Fire Festival, Shetland 2019

Get close to the fiery action at the 2019 Scalloway Fire Festival, and hear how Maurice Jamieson feels to be the Guizer Jarl, Thorbjorn Hrollaugsson.

Held on the second Friday of January each year, this is the first of Shetland's 12 fire festivals and Up Helly Aa's.

Up Helly Aa is a superb spectacle, a celebration of Shetland history, and a triumphant demonstration of islanders' skills, spirit and community. It takes several thousand people 364 days to organise. Much of the preparation is in strictest secrecy. The biggest secret of all is what the head of the festival, the 'Guizer Jarl', will wear and which character from the Norse Sagas he'll represent in each of the 12 Shetland fire festivals held between January and March each year.