At dusk last Monday night we joined a growing crowd of people on
Calton Hill to observe the appearance of the May Queen at the Beltane Fire Festival. There was much drumming and dancing as she processed around the hill until the climax at midnight when April turned to May.
5 comments:
Hi Sandy,
These pictures look amazing. That must have been a sight to see. Hope it wasn't too cold - a lot of those people don't have too many clothes on.
Wow! Wild! You must have had an awesome time out there :)
I second the concern for all those running around in their undies on a chilly night. It does look very colourful though.
Excellent photos! We've not been to Beltane for years, since they started charging for it in fact. It seems too commercialised now, though from your photos it looks as though it's much as it ever was...
Ellie and Shundo, we very much went for the lots of clothes option, it was pretty chilly. Hats, jerseys, gloves, coats, even scarfs - you certainly wouldn't have thought the crowd was in the same climate as the performers. There main advantage of course was that they had less to catch fire (I believe they have to get their undies fireproofed for extra safety)
Thank you Zia, it was an excellent night.
Juliet, this is the first time I've been so I've nothing to compare it to. Commercialism seems fair low key - a food van and the entrance fee (which I'm sure is needed as a control on numbers) was really very reasonable.
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