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 Samhuinn 2025 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.
Romaine
Having celebrated the quarter days with my family growing up I found out in 2016 there was a whole community celebrating and creating festivals in Edinburgh and that I could just volunteer and get involved, how wonderful!
I now have vivid memories of being behind the stage in a red boiler suit soaked to the skin (2016 Samhuin goes down in BFS lore for the rain) celebrating each time *anything* caught fire as planned!
Since then I have had so many rich and varied experiences, performing, GOing and in production roles within our vibrant community. Celebrating the wheel of the year collectively has helped me heal my relationship with each season. Witnessing people from all over the world join in and revitilise our heritage and culture is such a rewarding experience.
I am so honored to be asked to step up into the role of Blue and am really looking forward to supporting you all as we continue to live the ritual of delighting in the seasons.
NAte
From my very first Beltane festival where I was dragged into Stewarding despite insisting it ‘wasn’t my thing’, my time with BFS has been perpetual ever-quickening cycles of, ‘Well, *I* could never do that…’ only to go out and do the thing, supported by the fiercely loving, slightly wild, and endlessly supportive community of BFS.
I’ve stewarded, torchied, performed, drummed, costumed, served Cailleach and Queen, King’d, acro’d, and taken photographs. I’ve been a member, a GO, a Boardie and now a Blue! It’s been an extraordinary ride, and Beltane has become, for me, a rare gift: a chance for folk to reconnect, create, and make unforgettable memories in a way so rarely afforded to grown-ups.
I’m massively looking forward to seeing everything coming together – contributing, this time, to condensing the collective energy of the community into a runup and night which is magical.
Beltane Fire Society 