Press Release from the Beltane Fire Society (BFS)
(for immediate release on March 7th, 2003)

The hugely popular Beltane Fire Festival will not take place on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill as expected on 30th April this year, breaking with a fifteen-year tradition of marking the start of spring in the spirit of the ancient Celtic festival of Beltane in the midst of the city. Several factors have contributed to its organisers taking this decision, but the main reasons are the absence of support from Edinburgh City Council’s Culture and Leisure department and the spiralling costs of putting on the event.

In its Cultural Strategy Policy, Culture and Leisure claims to offer “partnership” with cultural providers, stating that it is committed to “preserving and interpreting Edinburgh’s heritage” and “enabling Edinburgh’s citizens and visitors to…enjoy… the widest cultural experience….” However, despite the BFS having this last year made an exceptionally concerted effort to establish such a partnership with Culture and Leisure Department, in order to be eligible for grant-aid, initially approaching Councillor Steve Cardownie last August, this support has not been forthcoming.

Due to the growing popularity of the event, with up to 14,000 people enjoying the stunning procession lead by a May Queen, there have been increased pressures on the Society, a non-profit-making community arts organisation, to meet the costs of ensuring that the event remains a safe one. In 2002 80% of the festival’s £14,000 budget was spent on meeting site conservation and safety requirements and the clean-up costs of the Calton Hill, with a significant proportion of the budget being paid directly to the Council, whilst performers paid for their elaborate costumes and props.

This year costs have been estimated as likely to spiral due to the steep rise in public liability insurance for events involving fire and the knock-on effect for hiring professional security firms, whose prices have also had to increase. However, as Angus Farquar, the festival’s founder has pointed out, that the BFS requires what is a relatively small sum in the context of outdoor public events to sustain such a popular festival is a credit to the organisers’ frugality and efforts.

In recent years the BFS has collaborated closely with the highly supportive Public Safety Department at the Council, police, fire brigade, Rock Steady and the Red Cross through the Events Planning and Operations Group (EPOG) to ensure the production of a safe event. However, neither the festival’s excellent safety record, nor the festival’s international profile, attracting visitors as well as locals and families, have proved sufficient to satisfy the Council that the event is worth supporting. No funding for the festival has been made available since a small grant was axed in 1997 and at last year’s festival, bucketing for donations on the hill raised an average of just 18p per audience member. Fundraising to meet such high costs has thus required an enormous amount of energy by BFS members. The BFS would like to thank everyone who has given voluntarily of their time or money to help produce Beltane.

Plans for finding the funds to produce this year’s festival were further hampered in early January 2003 when the BFS received a letter from the Culture and Leisure Department expressing concerns about giving permission for the use of Calton Hill for this year’s festival. These included fears about poor safety, debris left on the hill, damage to historic buildings, and nuisance caused to local residents. Culture and Leisure concluded that the festival did not appear to comply with the Council-approved Conservation Policy for Calton Hill, and that it would be preferable if an alternative venue could be identified.

However, the letter from Culture and Leisure was largely misinformed, not having paid heed to the Public Safety Department or EPOG debrief reports produced annually after each festival. Becky Plunkett, producer of Beltane 2002, responded by letter to each of Herbert Coutts’ concerns about the Calton Hill site. She outlined the rigorous process in which the BFS has been involved for some years to ensure that the event is produced safely and that the hill and its historic buildings would in no way be damaged. She wrote: “Last year we, we took our responsibilities one step further than previous years by employing an experienced, professional Production Manager to make sure we got things right on the night. We worked hard to address and solve the problems that had been encountered before, and over the years we have put our all into building up a relationship with the CEC Public Safety representatives and other EPOG members…to make the event as damage-free to the hill and as safe for the people as it can be.”

In expressing their concerns, Culture and Leisure was also unaware that BFS had already taken steps to address local residents’ complaints, meeting with their local Councillor, Dougie Kerr, at the beginning of January. And in raising the issue of litter on the hill, Culture and Leisure had failed to realise that since the BFS pays the Council for its clean-up, if the service was inadequately carried out, then it must be an internal matter for the Council to address.

This point was made on 3rd March at the first EPOG meeting to plan Beltane 2003, with many of Culture and Leisure’s concerns and allegations also being refuted by the Public Safety Department and by Lothian and Borders police. As Alan Howse, BFS Health and Safety Officer, who regularly contributed to those meetings said: “The Council’s concerns are our concerns, because we want a fun and safe event.”

Despite Ms. Plunkett’s detailed response to Culture and Leisure and a passionate appeal from Angus Farquar, now director of the successful nva arts organisation, to support Beltane, Culture and Leisure has not apologised for their incorrect statements. The department has also remained unmoved on the subject of grant-aid for the festival. And despite BFS Chair, Helen Moore’s plea to Donald Anderson, leader of the Council, to arbitrate urgently on BFS’ behalf, there has been no response from him either.

Helen Moore has also been personally upset by what has appeared to her to be the deliberate sabotage of a relationship BFS had been developing with Arts Development at the Council. Having asked Cardownie in August last year about grant-aid for Beltane 2003, she was put in touch with Arts Development and advised that raising the festival’s profile to Council members was a way in which this might be achieved. Ms. Moore explained: “In October an initial presentation was made by BFS and work was continuing behind the scenes to build on this. But a day after we received the letter from Culture and Leisure, I heard from Arts Development that they’d been told they were no longer to work with us. This seems extraordinary for a Department espousing partnership with cultural providers and completely unjustifiable. As a result of this, a unique and authentic festival is being prevented from happening in what is supposed to be the Festival City, ”

Nonetheless, on March 4th, just after the first EPOG meeting, Culture and Leisure finally granted permission for the use of Calton Hill, although with the stipulation that this be in accordance with a lease drawn up by the Council’s solicitor. However, with insufficient funds to produce the festival, the BFS committee decided yesterday that it could not go ahead. Angus Farquar said: “The Council’s failure to place one of Scotland’s most popular grassroots festivals at the centre of their Festivals’ Strategy is a total disgrace. The decision must be reconsidered if the Council are to have any credibility.”

And Becky Plunkett added: “I think it’s a shame that we don’t have funds to produce Beltane on Calton Hill this year, as over the years we’ve fostered a fantastic relationship with the Public Safety Department, Lothian and Borders Police, Rock Steady Security, the Red Cross, the fire brigade and members of the Parks Department. We could have definitely produced the event within the conditions stipulated by Herbert Coutts, as we’ve been addressing many of these issues in past years anyway, and had already made the first steps in liaising with the local residents’ association.”


For further information please contact:

Helen Moore, BFS Chair by e-mail  chair@beltane.org
Or by phone: 0131 228 4143

Angus Farquar, the Beltane Fire Festival’s founder:
By mobile: 0777 5537770