Festival Fights Fire With Fire

May 1, 2010

Author: Sue Gyford

Source: Scotsman

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Festival-fights-fire-with-fire.6266950.jp

A feast of flames, flesh and fertility came to Calton Hill with the annual Beltane Fire Festival.
Organisers estimated that 11,000 people flocked to the hill for the pagan-inspired celebration last night, watching 350 performers in costumes and body paint dance and drum the hours away.

As night fell, 16 black-clad figures with flaming torches mounted the National Monument and set light to three huge images of spring which hung between the pillars, before guiding the May Queen on a procession around the hill.

Trailed by a cortege including dancers sporting nothing but red body paint and thongs, she and her suitor, the Green Man, stopped to perform several pageants around the hillside.

The spectacular climaxed with the final tableau, when the pounding drums accompanied the defeat and resurrection of the Green Man.