Up Helly Aa

I'll be away on the 31 January, but wanted to post advance notice about the special event held then on Shetland, Up Helly Aa. There will be a live webcast at www.shetland.org/uha. Don't forget to take into account that Shetland is in another time zone and you'll have to adjust for this. You can also watch the sail racing, which starts in Aberdeen and is scheduled to arrive in Lerwick for Up Helly Aa.

I received the text which follows from Promote Shetland. There was an excellent photograph from a previous year, but I couldn't get it to copy to my blog.

Hello,

We just wanted to drop you a quick email to let you know that we will once again be broadcasting Up Helly Aa LIVE through our webcam network on 31st January. Up Helly Aa truly is quite spectacular to watch and for those not able to be here on the day, we hope you will manage to watch it online with us at www.shetland.org/uhaUp Helly Aa is our annual Viking event which takes place in Lerwick on the last Tuesday in January. It is Europe's largest fire festival and something very unique to Shetland. You can read about the history here.Please let us know if you experience any problems with the page this week and we will endeavour to have it sorted in time for the event.

Virtual sailing race to Shetland for Up Helly Aa Sailonline.org offers online offshore sailracing as you have never experienced it. With super realistic boat performance, state of the art wind forecasts and realtime chat you will have the ultimate online sailracing experience.The next race, starting on Friday 27th January, will leave from Aberdeen and routing via the Moray Firth, SOLers will race through several of the Shetland Islands with the intention of arriving in Lerwick for Tuesday 31st January to take in the Up Helly Aa celebrations.To find out more about the race or to register to take part, click here.