This year’s Up Helly Aa in Shetland will be a special one.
For the very first time, women will take part in the Jarl squad alongside this year’s Guizer Jarl, Richard Moar – a man who has waited a long time for his big moment.
Mr Moar has been obsessed with the annual fire festival since he was five years old, first participating in 1990 at age 14 as a fiddlebox carrier.
The 47-year-old was eventually elected to the Up Helly Aa Jarl committee in 2008 and thus began the long wait for his turn to step into the iconic role.
The 2024 Guizer Jarl squad will be ground-breaking for the festival as Mr Moar intends to have his daughter and three nieces take part.
It will be the first time in Up Helly Aa’s more than 150-year history that females will join the Jarl squad – a truly historic moment.
Mr Moar’s squad, known locally as the “Home Furnishing Squad”, will also contain descendants from the original 1965 squad.
Mr Moar has participated in many festivals over the decades but missed three years in a row when in Edinburgh for university. The only time he was homesick was when Up Helly Aa was on.
He said: “Every year is a highlight, every year is different. You do everything you can to make it work for the Jarl.
“We’ve had some real good fun and some difficult decisions to make, but what we do is for the best of the festival to keep it a success.”
‘It’s been a long time coming’
In the lead-up to the day, Mr Moar is excited to see all the squads in their costumes, designed and created especially for the event.
He says countless hours have gone into making each costume, with around 95% handcrafted by proud Shetlanders.
Mr Moar expects the day to fly by with so much going on.
Having been part of a squad for many years, he loves to see the “sheer excitement” among the crowds.
Mr Moar’s father-in-law, Kenny Crossan, was Guizer Jarl in 1982 and has impacted his approach to his upcoming role.
He said: “The character I will be portraying will be the son-in-law of Haakon Haakonsson that Kenny portrayed in 1982 so we have a couple of references to Kenny’s suit in our own suits.”
When Mr Moar joined the committee, he was due to become Jarl in 2022, forty years after his father-in-law, but the pandemic pushed everyone back two years.
His squad has 31 family members from Shetland, London and Norway.
Up Helly Aa 2024 will feature women in the Jarl squad for the first time
What’s special about this year is Mr Moar’ Jarl Squad will be the first in the festival’s history to feature women, following a rule change last year.
Mr Moar will be joined by his 16-year-old daughter Jenna and three of his nieces.
He said: “The squad that we started with 10 years ago was 90% set, so we didn’t have the capacity to take a huge quantity of folk.
“I offered my two daughters to come out – one said yes, the other said no, and then I also invited in my nieces, so it’s really the nearest and dearest family.”
His daughter, Jenna, said “it’s been a long time coming” to take part and is looking forward to the evening torchlight procession.
She said: “It’s quite a historic moment in time and it’s really special having dad as the Guizer Jarl and being in of his squad this year.
“When dad ask me, I thought about how it’s a once-on-a-lifetime opportunity to have your dad as the Guizer Jarl.
“If I didn’t do it I might have regrets, and then if I did do it you’d enjoy the night surrounded by family and friends.”
Up Helly Aa can be a gruelling day for the Jarl, so Mr Moar plans to immediately “rest and recover” after the festival.
Following a busy year planning, Mr Moar wants to jet off to New York for the Tartan Day Parade in April.
He still plays an important role in next year’s festival as the marshal assisting 2025 Guizer Jarl, Calum Grains.
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