In keeping with Celtic tradition the history of the Festival is maintained mainly through storytelling. Beltane lore is held by the Blues, a respected group of the society’s ‘old hands’ who build the stories through their considerable experience in participation and involvement in the Beltane Fire Society.
Our Blues are long-standing and active members of our community with lots of experience participating and performing in festivals, and a deep connection to our rituals and traditions. For more information around the role, please see the links below, or head further down to see who our current Blues are and read the words they shared with us.
- What Blues do.
- The current Blues for any festival form part of the GO Selection Group for that festival: they therefore now cast their votes, along with the Board, on an equal footing. You can find the full GO selection process here.
- The Blues and Board also work together to select court members. The full court process selection for this year is here.
- Processes around becoming and stepping down as a Blue.
If you have queries about these process or changes, please contact us at board@beltane.org, or members of the board will have a table at the Open Meeting where you can drop by and chat with us.
Our Beltane 2026 Blues:
Becky
My first year as a part of the society in 2006 had me running around on 4-legged stilts as a giant wolf and then as what is currently known
as Queens Hands. It was the beginning of an incredible personal journey into all the many skills the festivals give the opportunity to explore and the community that I gained many life-long friendships from over the years.
In Samhuinn 2014 I had the honour of embodying the Cailleach which was a
culmination of years of fascination and draw to the Crone. After a year away living in the Canadian wilderness I returned to my first festival as Blue in 2016’s Beltane.
I have taken years to explore, play and recharge in various other groups following my first role as Blue but am delighted to be returning, supporting the community that has given me so much. The Society continues to change, new traditions and practices form… my love for all this evolving chaos remains.
John
I first took part in Beltane in 2008 as a Steward.
I had been attending the Festival for many years as a spectator (we call them witnesses now). Being rather short, I rarely saw very much of the performance with so many people in front of me. But that didn’t matter as the pulsing of the drums and electrifying excitement of the spectacle rippled through the crowd, everyone moving together to the beat in their thousands.
Then technology ruined it all! People had decided that if they stood very, very still, their terrible 1.3 megapixel phone cameras would be able to capture the majesty of the May Queen despite the darkness of the night and the flickering glare of dancing fire. They were wrong, but the damage was done. The pulsing crowd of previous years was transformed into a dense forest of human tripods.
Joining the Stewards allowed me to stand at the front and get a great view for the first time. I still had no real idea what was going on, but whatever it was, it was Right There! I was hooked, returning the next year and every year since. As well as several more stints as a steward, I have been a firestarter, an embarrasing uncle, entourage to the May Queen, a drummer, a dancer, an acrobat, a king, a host of the party, an evil chef, a witch, a noisy blacksmith and a Blue, learning something new and exciting about the festival and myself each time.
Our festivals are exciting and challenging and spectacular, but what really keeps me coming back, year after year, is the incredible community of friends and colleagues who come together to create each one afresh, with no two festivals quite the same.
Simone
Back in 2015, I turned up to a Beltane Open Meeting anxious and unsure if I’d fit in, and was immediately swept up into a delightfully mad whirlwind of strangers who welcomed me like an old friend.
Since then, I’ve been painted a rainbow of different colours as a drummer, photographer, King’s helper, White, Techie, hunter, Gaelic singer, bird, faerie and GO. I’ve learned new skills, grown as a person, made friends for life and achieved things that I thought I never could… and had a whole lot of fun along the way!
The creativity and love that goes into what we do still blows me away, and seeing everyone’s hard work come together on the night still gives me goosebumps every single time.
I’m honoured to be asked to Blue, grateful to be able to give back to this amazing community, and so excited to do this wild, wonderful thing with you all.
Sarah
I’ve been around since Samhuinn 2016, and my time in BFS has been spent fairly evenly between audience-interaction-heavy character groups, and groups connecting closely with ritual and marking the seasons. In both contexts, my favourite part of performing has been the chance to cultivate small but powerful moments of connection – with witnesses, with fellow performers, with the world around us. I’ve been a GO a few times, and I pour a lot of my time and love into our sustainability committee. I was really honoured to serve as the Cailleach in 2021, and witness everyone working together to forge meaning in such a difficult time.
My greatest love throughout the last nine years has been seeing people flourish. I find so much joy in watching the light filling people’s faces as they discover all the new things they can do, and then do beautifully. I want to create as many opportunities as I can for people to find that sense of creative empowerment, and fulfilment – to feel brave enough to lead, and to rest.
I’m interested in how ritual and performance connects us to the natural world – reminding us that we really do belong in the networks of life around us. Outside of Beltane, I have a deep interest in ecology, conservation, and community gardening. I’ve found it really valuable to explore how those parts of my life weave together to help me serve our Beltane community.
I’m so grateful that I now get to serve as one of your Blues, and have this chance to support the community and festivals I love. I intend to do that as hard as possible.
Lindsay
Despite being an Edinburgh native, I only discovered Beltane existed after I started drumming with the Edinburgh Samba School. After a few years watching the festivals (and becoming very close to getting involved – even attending an open rehearsal in 2007), I took the plunge and joined as a Processional Drummer for Beltane 2009. And despite being somewhat confused and overwhelmed with the whole experience that first festival, I was hooked.
What followed was many years of drumming, including leading both the Processionals and Winter Drummers for a number of years (and a couple of one-off drum crews), until I finally took the plunge completely out of my comfort zone into a non-drumming group for the Queen’s Hands in Beltane 2024.
Beltane has been a key part of most of my adult life and has offered me so many opportunities and experiences that I can confidently say I would not have had in any other capacity. I am honoured and excited (and a little nervous) to be asked to take on the role of Blue for this festival and hope to do it justice and contribute to this really rather wonderful thing we do.
I came for the drumming, but I stayed for so much more.
Mailis
My first Beltane was in 2017 after I joined the very last open practice of the Aerie; pushing myself to do something new and scary after moving to Scotland in October 2016.
In my 9 years within the BFS, I have been a bird, a dancer (many times), a drummer, a snake, a Pixie, a fire performer, a root vegetable, a Cailleach/Queen’s/Blue’s helper, Green Man and a trustee. I have met so many delightful people, started calling Scotland home and found a little corner of joy on a Hill. Despite time passing and the challenges we’ve faced, each year the magic remains and I marvel at the creativity of everyone who helps create the not-so-small feat that our Festivals are!
I am so honoured to have been asked to become a Blue, and I am so excited to help shape and support the wild things that we do every year.
Beltane Fire Society 