Brad first took part in the Samhuinn Fire Festival last year as a Torchbearer. Here, he shares the story of his continuing journey…

I was inspired to take part in Samhuinn firstly because of having such a wonderful time with the Society taking part in the Beltane Fire Festival, but also because while helping out at Beltane I felt I had really connected with the people there and wanted to come back to interact and socialise with them all over again. I was also inspired to get involved as it was the first time I had ever heard about this festival even though I had been living in Edinburgh for all my life.

The stand out memory of Samhuinn for me was being able to see all the people who had come from around Edinburgh (and from much further away too) to basically watch this group of hippies (and hippy adjacents) dress up and march about town performing. Because it wasn’t a festival I had known about before, it shocked me that little bit more that so many other people were already well aware of it and excited as hell to see it. It was also really fun to interact with the audience as it wasn’t something I had done at Beltane.

I am taking part again this year and the thing I am most excited to be doing is, once again, Torchbearers. Because the Group Organisers are different from last time they have brought their own ideas to the role which lets me do a similar thing to last year but with a completely new twist and new things to learn. Plus, the selling point of my character possibly resembling something from Game of Thrones is never a bad thing to be excited about!

_{Photo of Brad at Samhuinn 2014 by Gyorgy Papp}