Community / Busy weekend ahead as Scalloway Fire Festival kicks off
THE FAMILIAR smell of paraffin, the warm amber glow of torches and the hearty Viking roar is back in style as Scalloway kicks off this year’s fire festival season.
Guizer jarl John William Laurenson is leading a squad of 52 around Scalloway, Burra and Tingwall today (Friday) ahead of tonight’s procession as he enjoys his moment in the fire festival limelight.
Laurenson, who is from Burra, said it is a proud moment as he represents not only the fire festival itself but his squad and the community too.
The 48-year-old is going by the name Thorfinn Torf-Einarsson for the festivities, which offers a link to his uncle who was guizer jarl nearly 20 years ago.
“When my uncle was the jarl in 2008 in Scalloway he chose his jarl as Rollo,” Laurenson said.
“Thorfinn Torf-Einarsson comes from a nephew of Rollo.
“My uncle took me out in the Scalloway Fire Festival for my first time in 1988, so I thought it would be fitting.”
He said his squad has just over 50 folk in total – 36 adults and 16 children.
This includes his two children as well as his dad, while some folk are travelling from the mainland – and Orkney – for the weekend.
The suit includes a jade green coloured kirtle, as well as brown leather breastplates with some chainmail.
“There’s also a fibreglass helmet covered with leather and finished off with pewter,” Laurenson added.
The only pieces which were not locally made were the boot and breeks.
Laurenson’s galley, which will succumb to its fiery demise at Port Arthur at the finale of tonight’s procession, is called Austrsker.
“It loosely translates into east skerry or east island, and it’s the east isle of Burra that we stay in,” he explained.
His squad musicians have been put together by Tom Jamieson – whose “songbook is as big as the bible” – while Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It is their tune.
“Sometimes music kind of gets forgotten about but it’s really what nearly keeps you going all day,” Laurenson added.
“Especially with us in the jarl squad, the musicians on the bus – get the tunes going, and keep the mood up. It’s a long day and you need to keep the spirits quite high.”
Another musical quirk this year is that a documentary maker from America is coming to Shetland to film the fire festival as part of a travel series called Have Guitar Will Travel World.
The series aims to “understand the world through its music and music traditions”.
Among the visits today include local schools, the Walter & Joan Gray care home and the Scalloway Boating Club, where the jarl squad will entertain senior citizens.
Meanwhile Laurenson – who works for AquaShip – was 11 when he was first taken out in the Scalloway Fire Festival jarl squad in the late 1980s.
He was back in the jarl squad in 2001 and has been going out to the fire festival, which usually features around 200 guizers across 12 squads, ever since.
Meanwhile another family link to Up Helly Aa is that Laurenson’s grandfather was also the first ever jarl in Nesting in the 1960s.
Laurenson said naturally things have been pretty busy over the last year, and the weeks leading up to the big day.
“It doesn’t really sink in until you actually get the suits on and all the boys are together,” he said.
“I’m really looking forward to it. I’m a bit apprehensive maybe at moments as well but really looking forward to it, very excited for sure.”
“It’s not only the festival you’re representing, you’re representing the squad, the community.
“I feel very proud to be part of it.”
Tonight’s Scalloway Fire Festival procession lights up at 7pm at Lovers Lane, before a night of revelry in local halls and hop day festivities on Saturday.
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