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This article explores the linkages between community events and a rise in community social capital by analyzing a case study of the Up Helly Aa fire festival in Lerwick, Shetland. Through ritually repeated action that now translates as tradition, Up Helly Aa interprets and reinterprets what it means to be a Shetlander. It relies on personal donations and local businesses for funding, and this financial self-reliance can be seen to permit exclusionary actions towards visitors and reaffirm notions of traditionally constructed gender roles. This article examines the complex negotiations that take place during the festival surrounding gender, identity, heritage, tourism, and belonging to a place. It concludes that given the physical and social landscape in which the festival occurs, the reutilization of community celebration and fostering of community identity cannot be discounted despite Up Helly Aa's less than politically correct approaches to inclusionary participation and tourism development.
