Beltane Fire Festival

Carlton Hill, Edinburgh

30th April 1988 - Present

Beltane is an ancient celtic fire festival re-initiated by Angus Farquhar while still a member of the industrial music collective The Test Department in 1988. The festival had not run in Edinburgh for a century due to pressure from ‘The Kirk’ in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh’s Beltane festival originates in the Scottish and Irish Gaelic pre-Christian festivals of the same name. The name itself is thought to have derived from a Gaelic-Celtic word meaning ‘bright/sacred fire’. It was held to mark and celebrate the blossoming of spring, and coincided with the ancient pastoral event of moving livestock to their summer grazing.

From it small beginnings, Beltane has grown in reputation and scale and currently attracts up to 15,000 of five thousand revellers with over 300 performers. Its roots lie in the enduring myths of the Earth Goddess, the ritual of the May Queen reunited with her consort, the Green Man. The wishing for a good summer (we need it in Scotland!), celebrating rebirth after the long cold winter through the transforming energy of fire and an excuse to get outside with the poison of your choice and lose yourself in the night, the sites and the rhythms.

An annual pilgrimage for many; if you happen to be near Edinburgh on the eve of Apr 30th - then head for the hill and celebrate the fertility of the coming summer! 2007 will be the 20th anniversary. For more information on the festival next years revels visit www.beltane.org.