The late-January Shetland fire festival, the February York festival, the July Danish and Scandinavian markets, and the early-August Polish Baltic market, which is among the largest gatherings of its kind in Europe. Kit, the market as distinct from a festival, the encampment, a hird, living history, farb, authenticity as a standard with adjudicators, the burn, a thing.

Winter is not dead for the community, which is making kit, but it is dead for travel apart from the January and February fixtures. June to August for the large European markets, which are outdoor and camped.

Late January and February carry a distinctive winter anchor in the Northern Isles and in York, which are the two most travel-generating fixtures of the year precisely because they are indoors and in winter. The Shetland fixture is the extreme case and the most interesting one commercially.

It is on a small island with minimal accommodation stock, in January, and beds are committed a year or more ahead.