Beltane fire festival

[JammyS]

So, this has been touched on peripherally once or twice but I'm surprised it's not had its own thread yet. Principally Beltane Fire Festival, Edinburgh but also in smaller, scattered locations across Europe.

There's lots out there- Edinburgh has been growing since the 1990s, and good night photographers have been on the scene for a decade or so. There is much, much more awaiting if there's enough interest.

[altonhazzard]

just because I hadn't ever heard of this. Thanks JammyS.

[JammyS]

Thanks Alton- one or two new ones to me! Particularly like the silhouette in pic 4- here's a more surprising close-up .

Although it's mostly toplessness, since the costumes are all home-made and often flimsy, you'd expect a healthy proportion of wardrobe malfunctions, and you'd not be wrong. There are some more good pantie slips, but I only have watermarked shots.

I have to admit I'm a little wary of posting these, as for the last 2-3 years the official photographers seem to be holding back from more blatant close-ups, presumably because they're now more easily accessible...

[Davidavin]

I know I've posted a lot from this festival, but not sure in what thread. And I can't search right now from my tablet.

The event is worthy of its own thread, but check back through the archives via a search anyway, and you can always link to past threads..

K

[pennywiseguy2]

There are some existing threads.

https://forum.oneclickchicks.com/showthread.php?t=108101
https://forum.oneclickchicks.com/showthread.php?t=76322
https://forum.oneclickchicks.com/showthread.php?t=18240
https://forum.oneclickchicks.com/showthread.php?t=18243

PWG2

[JammyS]

Originally Posted by pennywiseguy2

There are some existing threads.

PWG2

These were nice starts- particularly the 2011 thread, started by snapper4. Credit for my repost- I haven't looked them over for a while.

Frustrating though that they only represent the tip of the iceberg, and that we haven't sustained a more extensive thread yet. There's lots, lots more but it takes perseverance; perhaps the reason it's not yet taken off on OCC is that it's choreographed such that the immense crowd is static and the performances very fluid, so only the official photographers roaming inside the cordons stand much chance of getting a good set of shots. Get-ty and Al@my in particular have some great shots and I'd love somehow to see more than thumbnails. Can't do this alone chaps!

Here's some 2005 action.

[JammyS]

Okay, now that the initial WNBR deluge has abated, I've been waiting to post a bynch of stuff from this year's 30th Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh. Which meant a bumper crop of nearly nude girls dancing around a bonfire for hours, several of whom this year also do a bit of nude modelling on the side- see my third post for that. It looked like an epic year- almost wish I'd gone, I'm not far from Edinburgh.

I kind of get why these threads never really take off for likes and traffic; they're mostly topless only and it's difficult to find well-lit images (though this year Alamy has some nice, watermarked daylight nudity from the builld up). But I love it, perhaps because it's a warm-up for the great summer nude events, perhaps because as Edinburgh's a small place there's always a chance one might happen to bump into one of the performers. They come from all walks of life, yes some circus performers and a handful of pagans, but mostly pretty young students and professionals, going from the clothed rehearsals and busks.

That said, it has been difficult this year to find top resolution images; the official photography is on this database site, which only has medium and small pics available. There's a standard format to the filestructure for the photos, but try as I might I can't find a combination of letters (XL, XX, O, etc) which yields larger versions. It's quite possible that larger versions are only supplied by vetted request- but would very much like to hear if you know different of course!

photos.beltane.org/

[JammyS]

Two wardrobe malfunctions this year from what I've seen- here's the most blatant, where a busty brunette bounced out of her home-made bra early on whilst running down a hill, and never bothered even to attempt to strap them back in. Images 3-6 are all gifs that I put together from the hill dash, some really lovely busty bouncers there.

The other wardrobe slip is even more tantalising but I've only seen long-range images of it; a young girl who was one of only a couple not to even go topless swallows her thong like a hungry turtle. Hopefully there will be closer photos of it somewhere.

[the-obs]

damn, interesting thread for sure.
I googled it and I saw a lot of great photos.
I don't read the subject of the fest, but it looks like a pagan celebration or something like this, no ?

Is this always at the end of april like this year ?


Thanks for the photos.

[JammyS]

Originally Posted by jidderman

Is this a UK festival? I have forgotten what it is and I must have subscribed to this a while ago?.

It's one of four historic Gaelic celebrations for the four seasons. Edinburgh kickstarted the tradition in the late 80s with celebrations for two of them- Beltane and Samhuinn, respectively overnight on 30th April and 31st October. Both are well established now but since the latter is held in the old town itself, nudity is disallowed and limited to (sometimes deliberate) wardrobe malfunctions- since Free the Nipple a few girls have been doing it with just tape on their nips.

So yes, every year on Calton Hill in the city- thousands attend, which is why punter photography sets are so limited- the nudity takes place across the hill, so only official photogs inside the performance areas tend to get decent albums of pics. As far as I know there are lots of small scale celebrations in Northern Europe- one in Germany seems to get a bit of nudity- but this is the only properly ticketed, rehearsed and choreographed event- as you see it involves a lot of naked acrobatics... There were some huge, moving human pyramidal chariots this year- it's pretty insane.