Dedicated volunteers have gathered for one final time in Shetland to make sure more than 1,000 torches are ready to burn bright tomorrow night’s Up Helly Aa.
About 950 guizers, including some women for the first time ever, are expected to take part in the fire festival’s procession through Lerwick.
Following months of hard work to make the individual torches, they will be set alight in spectacular fashion and used to burn this year’s galley.
Crews have been working from containers set up outside Isleburgh Community Centre to craft the torches since the first week of November.
Before this, torch foreman Ryan Wright spent about four months sourcing the hessian, wood and nails required, as well as the containers and permits required for the work.
Mr Wright has been involved in Up Helly Aa for the past 35 years and said each year it gets more difficult to source what is needed – including 8,000 bags of hessian.
“A lot goes on behind the scenes,” he said. “These guys turn up on that first night in November and then two nights a week after that. We usually make about 100 a night.
“We aim to make 1,200 senior torches and 200 junior torches every year which takes us up to the second week of January.”
How the torches are prepared
Each torch then has to be covered in a mixture of fire clay and cement so the paraffin does not run through the sticks of wood.
“That takes about a week,” Mr Wright added. “And then we spend about 20 hours in total steeping the torches in paraffin, each for two hours.”
All of the “torch boys” were out today for the final steps of the process – and to enjoy a song and a drink together ahead of the main festivities.
At 6.55pm tomorrow, all of the torches will be sent out ready for the procession in just 15 minutes.
A single firework will be let off to mark the moment when they will all be set alight.
As for Mr Wright and the group of about 30 volunteers, it highlights that their work to make Up Helly Aa happen is over for another year.
“Up Helly Aa brings everyone together,” he added. “I went because my dad went, and my brother went because of my dad before him as well.
“A lot of these guys are here because their dads, uncles or grandads were before. It’s a family thing, and everyone’s in it together all the way.”
In pictures: Up Hella Aa torches ready to light up night sky
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