The Beltane Fire Festival - A Celtic Celebration of Summer

A dramatic and colorful revival of an ancient tradition

• What:A dramatic Celtic and pagan pageant
• When: April 30, after dark
• Where:Calton Hill, Edinburgh
• Admission: £5, tickets online
• Website

Beltane is one of the ancient Celtic "quarter days" by which the ancient people marked the changing seasons. Its modern revival, with the Beltane Fire Festival, on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, is a wild and dramatic celebration of an ancient pagan tradition.

At least 12,000 spectators regularly come to watch and take part in the combination of fire, costume, drums and the ritual of the May Queen and her court. That court includes her consort, The Green Man, musicans, drummers, the Blue Men - keepers of the ritual - and the Red Men, or beasties - who try to disrupt things. It is noisy and colorful fun.