In the lead up to Beltane each year, much of our focus is on looking forward – towards the hope of bright summers ahead (and in the original Beltane festivals, a good harvest!). This message of hope and brighter days could not be more important, as we collectively take our first steps into a post epidemic world.

But once again, we are celebrating in the digital realm this festival. Our guide on how to access the celebrations can be found here.

WHAT TO EXPECT THIS FESTIVAL

This festival, our volunteers have once again come together in small projects to be creative, skill share and foster a sense of community. These projects are all run remotely or in a COVID safe fashion, complying with all local government guidelines at the time.

This festival is slightly different to our other digital offerings, in that we also challenged our volunteers to think of projects that are not based around creating a film. To focus on connection, community, lore and how they can, in some small way, rekindle that sense of ‘run up to the festival excitement’. This means we have a digital exhibition on our website, with music, animations, podcasts, interactive ‘memory maps’ and more. We’d love for you to explore the site and the incredible work our volunteers have done.

We’ll also be running an online stream of our ‘BOnFire 2021’ video, on Facebook and Youtube. This will run at 7.30pm UK time and be available to watch on the website in the weeks after. So if you can’t join us on the night, no problem.

Beltane Fire Society is completely volunteer run, apart from 3 short term contractors and all performers you see are giving their time to partake – some of them performing a skill for the very first time.

WHY SHOULD YOU BUY A TICKET?

This will be the third festival in a row we have had to cancel due to the pandemic. We are a charity and nearly all our income is derived from ticket sales. So for us as a Society, like most arts organisations across the UK, to say it’s been a tough year would be an understatement.

We have once again partnered with local ticketing provider, Citizen Ticket and while the stream is completely free to watch and access, we urge you to purchase a ticket if you’re in a position to do so. We’ve recommend £5, plus booking fees, but you can pay what you feel. A portion of all tickets sold will go to tree planting projects.

All donations raised will go back into our community to keep us running. While of course, without a physical festival, our costs have gone down this year, we still have a permanent office and storage space, 3 contractors and the costs of the digital festivals and all donations would be a massive help.

WHAT IS THE STORYLINE THIS FESTIVAL?

This festival our volunteers were welcome to explore the concepts, ideas and inspirations that spoke to them. While our key figures of the Green Man and the May Queen will be present and their journey’s will be told, each piece in the presentation can be viewed separately. This year many of our participants have been inspired by the re-wilding movement in Scotland; our connection to nature during lockdown; and women’s cycles, healing and power. You can read more about each group and their concepts here and at our exhibition.

You can read much about our Beltane Festivals and the characters you see here.

We look forward to joining you around the BOnFire once again….