Fire party revellers toast booze ban U-turn

Published on Friday 30 April 2004 01:00

REVELLERS at tonight’s Beltane Fire Festival will be allowed to drink alcohol following a dramatic last-minute U-turn by city council chiefs.

The council announced the unexpected move after earlier insisting the event would have to be booze-free if organisers were to be gain a licence.

Politicians who lobbied for the ban are furious at the sudden change of heart and have predicted the result will see the festival deteriorate into a drunken party.

Organisers of the event hired a team of solicitors to challenge the ruling on legal grounds, amid claims that the ban constituted a breach of human rights.

The Beltane Fire Society said the ban denied it the right to hold ancient rites of Beltane, which are built around a toast to the May Queen and a celebration of fire. But after an extraordinary meeting called by city festivals tsar Steve Cardownie and council leader Donald Anderson, the alcohol ban has now been overturned.

Councillor Cardownie today said the decision to ditch the clause was taken on the advice of public safety officers who believed the banning of alcohol would cause more problems that it solved.

He said: "We have waived the clause banning alcohol from the event. We believe the event is more manageable with drink being allowed. To ban it [alcohol] is like having Burns Night without whisky."

Calton councillor Dougie Kerr, the city’s former licensing convener, said: "I think the decision to allow alcohol this year was a mistake and I certainly don’t agree with it. I would have been far happier to run it dry this year and see if they could run it properly.

"Alcohol at these events change the nature of them, it turns a festival into a party and at that time of night it has caused a number of problems in the past."

• Beltane tickets are being sold in the run-up to tonight’s event at The Hub, on Castlehill, priced 3. They will also be available at access points to Calton Hill from 5.30pm.