^{Images thanks to BFS, Matt Richardson, Stuart Barret, Danny Williams, Ellen Duffy, Dan Mosely, Gordon Veitch, Duncan Reddish, & James Armandary.}

Sections
Walking in Our Current Season
The Call
Key Dates
Pre-Application Session
How to Apply
Selection Processes
Guidance Information
Spirituality and the May Queen

Walking in Our Current Season

Our community steps into winter as part of Her herd – on stark cold and rocky hills, We know that She, hard but fair, will stride beside us as we move through the cold and dark times. It is Winter and The Crone is at the fore. There’s a long season ahead of us and within it there is a sense of underlying uncertainty and change… When spring eventually comes again She will have called a new embodiment to hold Summer’s bounty in Her stead.

The Call

The May Queen is the heart of our Beltane festival, a personification of spring, renewal, fertility, and celebrating the growth and abundance of life after winter. She is eternal – but not jaded. Her part is enveloping and carrying the community, the elements, the fire and her Green Man around the hill in a merry and mad, dizzying but grand celebration of life itself.

As the central figure of our Beltane festival, the May Queen has a unique role in the Beltane Fire Society. She is many different things to many people across our community and we hold space for that variety of interpretation.  As we approach nearly 40 years of celebrating Beltane, only nine people have stepped into this role.

It is therefore, with gentle trepidation and great excitement, that we open the call for our tenth May Queen.

Key Dates

22nd Nov: Pre-Application Session with the May Queen, 10-12, location to follow
28th Nov: Community Nominations Close.
6th Dec: Applications Close.
13/14th Dec: Interviews.

Pre-Application Session

Because text doesn’t always allow for the most free or nuanced of chats, we will be holding an open session on the 22nd of November for potential applicants with the current May Queen and Blues. Attendance is not required at this – it is simply a gently informal space for people to come and learn more about the role or ask questions about things. This will be 10-12 on the morning of the 22nd, at a place to be confirmed. The location of this will probably be released fairly last minute due to waiting on a number of queries but keep an eye on the usual methods of communication.

How to Apply

First, make sure you have read the entirety of this post below the application section as it contains relevant information to help understand the expectations, breadth and longevity of the post.

Community nominations should be emailed, with a brief reason for your nomination, to the Blues at blues@beltane.org.
If self nominating, please include the following details to the same address:

• Name
• Contact details
• Availability across the festival or event run-up
• An optional up to *800* words or *eight* minute video in support of your application if you wish to.

If you are considering nominating someone, including yourself, but have further questions, or simply want to talk about the role and what it entails, please don’t hesitate to contact the Blues for a confidential chat (blues@beltane.org) or email our current May Queen (mayqueen@beltane.org). 

Applications from people of all gender identities, physical abilities, ages, races and socio-economic statuses are welcome. The potential to embody Her is the essential quality we seek in our next May Queen.

Selection Processes

• Selection Process documents: Court Selection Process , Court Volunteer Agreement & Role Description, BFS Code of Conduct *
  *Please note that unlike standard court nominations we have allowed for more text in the application (800 words / 8mins) and are asking for reasons for nominations.  Whilst you still don’t have to provide them it will help us greatly to understand why you feel an individual would represent, hold and guide the society well for the next few years.
• The closing date for community nominations is a week before the final closing date for self-nominations to allow people to be contacted and have a think about whether they would like to apply before self nominations close.
• Once nominations have closed we will consider the applications and invite shortlisted candidates for interviews.  It will be a busy time of year and it might be a few days before you hear anything – we understand it is a stressful time, but we wish to be able to read all applications closely before making any decisions.
• Once the interviews are over it may also take a few days before decisions are made – it is a big decision for us and for the community and we will not rush it.  
• We aim to offer some ritual space post-process for those who engage with the application process and who are not successful.
• The announcement will be after Yule.

Guidance information

The chosen person will have broad scope to interpret the role as they define their own process; however, as the central character and figurehead of our community, we expect that they:

• Should take time to think about their entire journey. They should plan to stay in the role for at least 3 years while understanding that growing into the role is a creative process. Candidates are expected to have more extra support in their first year or two to ‘get them up to speed’.
• Will be involved in actively creating the main storyline of the festival, along with the Green Man. This is a key to the whole Society’s vision, and the understanding of the May Queen’s journey.  This will be within meetings prior to and occasionally throughout the festival run up outside of GO meetings. 
• Should share their evolving vision of their role with the society, and their preparation plans with the Blues and Event Coordinator. 
• Should be willing to share their visions for the festival with the community in the form of a blog or piece to camera.
• Should attend most weekly GO meetings and be able to attend 1 day of the GO weekend plus the open meeting to share their vision for the role.
• Will make or engage with others to make a costume of their own or directed design.
• Will visit and practice with a number of groups throughout the run up to practice key shared performance moments.
• Should be prepared to engage with the ‘Queen’s*’ group, in their current incarnation – as a guide or figurehead and with preparations for various festival aspects and should have a good understanding of how this group works or understand that they will need to learn it intimately.

Spirituality and the May Queen

The May Queen serves BFS in multiple forms – creative guide, community leader and spiritual figure.

Whilst BFS itself is a secular society, open to all, we understand that for some participants, and the wider public, She is a figure of veneration or cultural significance in whom they place both great reverence and often also great expectation. 

Such expectations have historically included requests for blessings, handfastings, touch-based rituals, and prolonged one-on-one encounters that some may find physically or emotionally demanding.  While applicants may choose their level of engagement with such requests, they should be aware that the public may still seek spiritual interaction regardless of the May Queen’s stated position, and declining such expectations can in some cases lead to some tension. We do not expect applicants to take on things which conflict with their own beliefs and will support them in not having to take on things which they do not feel comfortable with.

BFS will support applicants in bringing their own cultural or spiritual beliefs to influence how they portray Her and what they bring to embodying Her.  We would, however, hope that a May Queen applicant would understand that there are many different ways of being or interacting with the May Queen as a figurehead and that they would give some space to considering what they can and want to give outside of their own spiritual framework to help support a pluralistic view of the May Queen.

Our May Queen will need to be able to hold competing needs, within the community and between themselves and the community, and navigate them with grace and kindness.   As this can involve significant emotional and spiritual labour, BFS Board and Blues are committed to preparing and supporting the May Queen through these demands.