Fire festival disappointment

Edinburgh’s world-famous Beltane Fire Festival could be one of the first major outdoor events in Scotland to fall victim to the restrictions on “mass gatherings” in Scotland.

Organisers of the event, expected to attract 8,000 revellers to Calton Hill on 30 April, will hold an emergency meeting on Monday after the order that large gatherings should be cancelled to protect the resilience of the emergency services.

Bradley Mcarthur, chair of the Beltane Fire Society, said: “This news is obviously disappointing for our hardworking volunteers who put a lot of time into ensuring our festival can happen to mark the changing of the seasons.

“We fully support the need for ensuring the public’s health in the current pandemic and understand the need to reduce the strain on Scotland’s emergency services by looking at cancelling large public gatherings.”

The operators of the Hydro arena and the Armadillo

in Glasgow said events over the next few days were expected to go ahead, including the Country to Country festival and shows by comic Jimmy Carr. However shows by The Who and Santana this month have been postponed and there is uncertainty over whether other events in the venues will go ahead.

A spokeswoman for the venues said: “Following the latest instruction from the Scottish Government, we continue to work closely with the organisers of upcoming events. We’re hopeful that the majority of events affected will be able to reschedule to a future date. We will communicate on an event by event basis and would encourage people to visit our website for information.”

A spokeswoman for the Edinburgh Playhouse said: “We continue to monitor the situation closely. We remain open and are taking precautionary measures in line with health and safety recommendations.”