The hill is alive with the sound of pagans

Published on Monday 2 May 2005 16:12

MORE THAN 8000 revellers turned out on Calton Hill at the weekend to attend the Beltane Fire Festival.

The event saw more than 100 drummers and dancers join in a fire-lit procession around the hill on Saturday night, led by the May Queen and her warrior women, all dressed in white.

A total of 8500 tickets were sold for the celebration - the second to be held after a two-year break. Festival organisers last year decided to ticket the event in a bid to help pay for the estimated 30,000 cost of staging Europe’s biggest fire festival.

Scott Hamilton, 23, said: "It was an incredible atmosphere - everyone was getting into it.

"Some people were stripping off and dancing along behind the parade. It was totally unlike anything I’d ever been to before."

Pension adviser Mr Hamilton, of Leslie Place, added: "It was a gigantic parade around the hill - really spectacular."

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "It was a good-natured crowd and a good time was had by all."

Many Beltane followers traditionally spend the night on Calton Hill after the event, which was first staged in 1988, to celebrate the height of spring and the coming summer, according to the ancient Celtic calendar.

Beltane, which originates from a Gaelic pre-Christian festival, was recreated in a joint initiative between a group of enthusiasts and the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University. Last year, council officials made a bid to curb drinking at the festival, but this time gave the go-ahead to booze on condition no glass bottles were brought to the hill.

Mr Hamilton added: "There were people drinking - in fact, most people were - but it was all really good-natured and there was no trouble."