NAKED fire festival hits Edinburgh with a bang THE annual Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh took place yesterday – and it got very naked

NAKED fire festival hits Edinburgh with a bang
THE annual Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh took place yesterday – and it got very naked.



It is the celebrate the coming of summer and is a revival of the ancient Celtic and Pagan festival of Beltane, the Gaelic name for the month of May.

The event, first organised in the mid-1980s, marks the ending of winter.
Eye-popping images show topless women and men dancing and jumping around flames on the hills around the Scottish capital.

Thousands of spectators gathered on Calton Hill to watch drummers, fire dancers, physical theatre and a large bonfire.

During the event, the Green Man is killed as god of winter and reborn as spring to consort with the May Queen.

All the fires are put out and relit using a fire made from a piece of wood from last year's festival


A spokesman for the Beltane Fire Society said: “This year is the 30th Beltane Fire Festival to celebrate, we've asked our volunteers to think big and explore the roots of the festival – both back to ancient times and also across the past thirty years of the event's history in Edinburgh.”

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