“Is this your first Beltane?” a teenager asks me sympathetically – with a subtle hint of an eye roll, blended with a definite note of concern, because I’m clearly lost. I’ve been to Edinburgh’s Calton Hill before but it did not look like this: a scene of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on acid. Around 250 performers swirl around us, acting, chanting, fire dancing, drumming, or mischief making, as they weave between the monuments, re-enacting scenes of traditional Celtic lore across 10 stages and spaces.
I’m in Edinburgh for the Beltane Fire Festival, a modern take on the pre-Christian Beltane, which saw ancient Celts mark the change of the season and welcome the summer every year on 30 April right through the night. May Day and maypole dancing stems from this millennia-old tradition.
I detect that I am not the only lost person. I don’t think the tourists who’ve been drawn in from the busy streets of Edinburgh below have a clue about what we’re about to witness. I sit alongside visitors from France, Germany, Slovenia and the US as we wait patiently for the sun to set over Leith. Dressed-up characters with their faces painted saunter about, setting the scene, but no one performs until the sun has fully set. Darkness falls at 9.20pm exactly; primal beating of drums signals that it’s go time, flames are lit by performers in formation along the National Monument of Scotland – its eight columns, based on the Acropolis in Athens, lined with flickering torches.
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And the show begins. Departing from the monument, a waft of white-gowned ladies-in-waiting donning floral wreaths serve the May Queen, main character of the night, who’s being paraded around this hilltop park by these women in white, as well as a large troop of drummers and fire twirlers – all pursued by her future husband the Green Man. He’s painted blue not green, but let us not ask too many questions.
This is not midsummer, but it’s certainly midsummer adjacent in belief; Beltane Fire Festival is celebrated every year on this spot by local pagans who are keeping Celtic tradition alive in Scotland, their fire society promoting the ancient calendar that includes solstices and Samhain (aka Halloween), too.
I’ve been having a quintessentially Scottish time all week. I was driven here on board the extraordinarily comfortable Caledonian Sleeper train. As it wound around the formidable rock foundations of Edinburgh Castle, I raised a glass of early morning Irn-Bru while inhaling some porridge oats in the cafe car – totally ready for my Scottish passport. Edinburgh is awash with pre-Christian tradition masking as Christian.
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“As kids we were told that egg pacing on Easter Sunday represents the stone outside Jesus’ tomb rolling away,” Díarmaid McDermott, operations manager at boutique hotel 100 Princes Street, told me as I’d marched off to Arthur’s Seat in search of egg-rolling families, unknowingly partaking in pagan Celtic tradition.
Ten days later it feels poetic that this year’s Beltane festival on Calton Hill looks back at Arthur’s Seat glowing yellow, coated in heather bushes in full bloom. In ancient Celtic times this celebration took place up on Arthur’s Seat before it was squashed by Georgian and Victorian hyper-Protestantism. But the Celtic traditions were too strong to stamp out and live on in Morris dancing, bonfires, May Day and May Queen contests. Beltane Fire Festival as it is today was revived in 1988 by a group of artists and musicians aiming to educate the public on “the traditions of the Celtic lunar calendar fire festivals and their relevance to contemporary culture”.
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Almost 40 years ago their first audience was 50 people – this year, 6,000 attendees watched this interactive celebration. It’s so interactive that guests are encouraged to wander about and see where the night takes them. “You will get lost”, says the brochure, “…and that’s all part of the fun.”
Ah good, it’s not just me then. But I am glad when my teenage saviour, who’s a Beltane veteran by all accounts, shares her map with me so I can get ahead of the crowd and nab a good view for the next dance off between the slightly feral ‘reds’ and austere ladies in white.
To the unknowing eye this might look chaotic, but its finely tuned steps are precise, from the first drum beat at sunset until the bonfire rages at midnight. This year’s theme of ‘rewilding’ is sewn in throughout the night with four performers donning huge papier mache fox heads, leading the processions around the hilltop.
Back at my hotel, the concierge at the W Edinburgh tells me that my suite, in their restored James Craig Walk block, is where Robert Burns (the poet) and James Craig (the architect) once partied. I hope Rabbie Burns saw the fires of Beltane at least once in his life. It’s right up his street.
Travel essentials
How to get there
The Caledonian Sleeper runs between London and Edinburgh every night of the week. Seats from £74; beds from £250. Sleeper.scot
Where to stay
100 Princes Street
Not many hotels have their own tartan. This boutique property – that is unequivocally Scottish in design and demeanour – is so classy that it has not one but five unique tartans used throughout the award-winning hotel. Ask for a room with a view of Edinburgh Castle. 100princes-street.com
W Edinburgh
The sleek splendour of the W chain has adapted to its location: the new building in St James Square, shaped like a twirling ribbon (a nod to the city’s textiles industry), has a 360-degree view from its rooftop W Lounge, where the new cocktail menu is themed around Scottish folklore. Marriott.com
For more information, visit beltane.org.
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