[raesene6]

Up Helly Aa isnt' designed to capitalise on credulous foreigners, it's very much a festival for the local population of Shetland.

Apart from anything else, I can't imagine many people wanting to go to Shetland in January for a holiday :)

[sambeau]

I've known people go up for the Up Helly!

I went to the one on Arran once, but I seem to recall it was in the Summer or Autumn. There was camping up the glen involved so it couldn't have winter time.

[raesene6]

If they like a drink (or several) and a party, indeed it's a good place to go.

I've been to Shetland 7-8 times for holidays, lovely place, but not really in the winter. Apart from anything else the crossings can be really rough, or cancelled altogether if the weather is bad.

I only did the ferry from Aberdeen once in really bad weather, they handed out leaflets to everyone getting on saying it was "at the passengers own risk"!

Lets just say, even several of the crew were seasick on that voyage...