Question for the Beltane people on my friends list...

[andrewducker]

Why is there no explanation of the Beltane event on the website? There's now a description of the various "personalities" in the Bestiary, but no timeline of what will happen on the hill over the course of the event. Every time I've been to Beltane (intermittently since 1993) I've found myself surrounded by people wondering what on earth is going on at any particular time...

Comments

[zz]

i was thinking the same thing while trying to explain the event to my mum, who's thinking of going.

[diotina.livejournal.com]

That's a good question--I shall ask Milk, who I think does this sort of thing. Or you could?

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

A very good question! I recommend you mail it to the webmonkey.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

If the group who does Beltane for you is anything like the Fremont Arts Council here, it's because they have no idea themselves until the event is happening, and even then, only a few at any time know what's happening next, and even then most of them are surprised more often than not.

[andrewducker]

They've been practicising for months, and it pretty much happens every year the same (or at least very similarly). They should know by now :->

[daisyflip.livejournal.com]

One word: hippies.

The Boy explained it to me, but I there's definitely an issue with under-staffing. Beltane is ace, brings in loads of tourists and is generally a landmark in the Edinburgh calender but gets no council funding so all efforts are taken up with just getting everything done, by my reckoning.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Apart from the outline on wikipedia, you mean?

Last time you asked, I bounced the question to the main discussion mailing list, thereby setting off a fairly long thread of answers....

Apologies for not coming back sooner.

Short answers: things change from year to year; not everyone has the same interpretation of what does happen; too much information about what's qoing on and when leads to crowd-induced crush hazards; explanatory posters are either too small to be useful or too obtrusive; leaflets are taken and scattered unread if free, ignored if charged for; wondering about what's going on is part of the experience; each group does their own bit, and it doesn't come together until the walkthrough a week before....

And so on. It's something that gets looked at most years, but given what else needs to be done each year, it tends to be low-priority. However, there's a series of events before and after Beltane that give some idea about what's happening on the night.

[andrewducker]

Cheers for the update!

[akicif.livejournal.com]

No probs. I wish I could have been more helpful.