Beltane Fire Festival is the culmination of artists and community bought together to celebrate the beginning of summer and the cycles of nature, deeply routed within an understanding of Gaelic heritage and culture. The costumes and parade are an attraction in and of themselves, with 300 volunteers dressed up as spirits and sprites in a Scottish interpretation of a mystic circus. With man-mounted-stag-heads and surrealistically large monsters, the procession moves up the hill to the pounding beat of the drums and follows the journey of the May Queen and Green Man.

Fire is at its heart, beginning at sundown the parade is lit with torches, fire dancers and fire jugglers, all building up to the final bonfire which lights the park up for a view of the entire show. The passion and energy of the volunteers makes the event an all encompassing and spiritual wonder, with ostentatious costumes and dance that draws fans into an almost realistic surrealist night of outdoor, bizarre debauchery covered in what must be Edinburgh’s entire supply of body paint.

Heritage & Tradition

Marking the start of the start of summer and revelling in the fertility of the land, Beltane (or, ‘bright fire’) was a ritual casting off of darkness for Scotland’s ancient ancestors. Beltane Fire Society have embraced and reinterpreted this tradition since 1988 to follow the story of The Green Man and May Queen, where the Green man is stripped of his Winter form before being resurrected through a ritual performance created by acrobats and dancers, and finally lighting the bonfire to welcome summer.

Beltane Fire Fest brings Gaelic history to life with a surreal and explosive Calton Hill blaze!