Beltane Festival

‘Sacrifice the virgins!’ screamed a young lady standing next to me in the tightly packed throng, all craning for a better glimpse of what’s happening up ahead. Normally in a crowded public place, this type of loudly expressed sentiment would get you arrested, or at the very least cause a ripple of raised eyebrows.

On the last night of April and first day of May up to 12,000 people take to Calton Hill for a ritualised and theatrical pantheistic celebration to mark the arrival of Summer. This year (2012) is the 25th anniversary of Beltane and promises to be a special one.

Edinburgh's Beltane Fire Festival was created in its current form in 1988, the product of a small group of enthusiasts including the musical collective Test Department

With its heady brew of drums, fire, theatre and pagan ritual on the top of Calton Hill, the Beltane Fire