It was akin to the ‘big festival tickets’ feeling.” That’s a striking degree of enthusiasm for what would once have been considered seriously fringe celebrations. “Now our final release sold out literally in minutes. “We used to be able to sell tickets on the door,” Devey says. Butser, which has capacity for 2,500 guests, is also completely sold out. Overnight camping spots for Beltane at Thornborough were booked up weeks ago, and there’s no space left for day visitors. If you’re thinking that sounds like fun, you’re out of luck for this year. “It’s a joyful celebration and a collective coming-together, with a decent amount of mead, which is an essential component,” says Kristin Devey, who runs events at Butser. More pagan-inspired than actual ritual, there’s drumming, Celtic face painting, flower crowns, a May Queen and a Green Man – not to mention a dramatic 40ft wicker man that gets burned at dusk.

It’s a similar scene at Butser Ancient Farm’s eclectic Beltane Celtic Fire festival in Hampshire.

The Beltane festival at Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire. The majority of people are pagan, but Wiccans and Christians are also welcome, as well as their four-legged friends: “We’ve had cats, dogs, a bunny, ferrets … everybody’s welcome, as long as you keep your clothes on!” “There’s a full range from babies to old people with walkers and electric wheelchairs,” she says. Annelli Stafford, a practising “eclectic” pagan and the organiser of Beltane at Thornborough Henge in North Yorkshire, agrees: “It’s a really nice start to the year after a long, cold winter.” A regular since 2011, Stafford describes the energy and stunning skies at the three ancient henges, and the event’s welcoming spirit. “To be in a circle, to have a huge bel-fire and to jump the ashes into the full summer, it’s very life-enhancing,” says Adrian Rooke, a druid from the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD), which runs druidry courses. One of the eight festivals in the “ wheel of the year”, Beltane is observed from 30 April to 1 May in the northern hemisphere and is an occasion for joyful ritual that marks the moment spring bursts into life, with fires, flower garlands – and perhaps a maypole. I t’s nearly Beltane, and pagans across the country are getting ready to celebrate.

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