“Is this your first Beltane?” a teenager asks me sympathetically – with a subtle hint of an eye roll, blended with a definite note of concern, because I’m clearly lost. I’ve been to Edinburgh’s Calton Hill before but it did not look like this: a scene of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on acid. Around 250 performers swirl around us, acting, chanting, fire dancing, drumming, or mischief making, as they weave between the monuments, re-enacting scenes of traditional Celtic lore across 10 stages and spaces.
I’m in Edinburgh for the Beltane Fire Festival, a modern take on the pre-Christian Beltane, which saw ancient Celts mark the change of the season and welcome the summer every year on 30 April right through the night. May Day and maypole dancing stems from this millennia-old tradition.
