Lerwick’s Viking fire festival, Up Helly Aa, has been cancelled for the second year running.
The event is world-famous for the celebrations of the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands.
The committee for the event cited that the pandemic had made planning for Up Helly Aa impossible.
Speaking of the decision, committee secretary Robert Geddes said: “Up Helly Aa as an event relies on numerous factors coming together at one time to be able run smoothly and safely.
“Planning for the event takes place a full year ahead of each festival and despite the best efforts to continue organising the festival through the various restrictions that have been in place to date this year, it is clear now that despite the release of further restrictions there isn’t sufficient time to run the event in its normal format.
“This will be disappointing news for many, particularly at a time when guidance is relaxing for Covid.
“Many questions remain however as to what life looks like for this type of event in the coming months and for that reason it’s unfair to put the responsibility on the hundreds of volunteers it takes to organise the festival.”
1,000 guizers dressed in Viking garb march through the streets before the day ends with the dramatic burning of a replica Viking longship.
Shetland and neighbouring Orkney were under Norwegian rule for about 500 years until they became part of Scotland in 1468.
The festival stems from the 1870s when a group of young local men wanted to put new ideas into Shetland’s Christmas celebrations.
The date of the next festival will be Tuesday, January 31 2023.
This means the last event was January 28, 2020, before the pandemic.
The event is rarely postponed or cancelled the last time — before the pandemic — was 1965 where it was postponed one week because of Winston Churchill’s death.
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