Born on the night of Beltane Fire Festival, the Reds come alive with the lighting of the sacred Neid fire. They are the fire – warm, dynamic, and aligned with the Summer sun.

They see the world through newborn eyes, and are filled with wonder at everything that they encounter for the first time. They arrive at Beltane ready to play and explore the new world of Summer. They will lick and bite and squeeze everything they can get their hands on.

The Reds are uncontainable creatures, a law unto themselves that comes and goes as they please from the procession’s ritual journey around the Hill. They dance and flicker like flames, flipping, spinning, and wriggling through the air.

When the Reds meet the Whites, they wish to draw closer. They recognise an energy that is different from theirs, more still, which they desire to know better. Their courtship of the Whites mirrors that of the Green Man with the May Queen, initially rebuffed but eventually warming.

When the May Queen ignites our final bonfire, the Reds mirror the towering blaze by clambering up each other in the form of a pyramid. They are a Red bonfire, creating one of two fiery points that their fellow performers can move between – much like in Beltanes of old, when communities cleansed their flock by driving them between two Neid fires.

Tickets for Beltane Fire Festival are available to buy online from Citizen Ticket. Join the Facebook event here.