Back in the room I showered, officially decided to wear the black moon dress I’d been debating with myself about wearing to the fire festival, got dressed, and finished packing. Jess decided to wear her butterfly tube top with the matching coverup and the shorts we brought with the most and biggest pockets so we wouldn’t have to bring a bag in with us. After a double check and another partially validated parking ticket we were out the door and on our way back to Ireland! We had such a wonderful time in Northern Ireland though, I really do encourage anyone thinking about visiting Ireland to give at least Derry a visit up north, it’s a wonderful time all over!
It was basically the same distance from Derry to our next hotel outside of Uisneach, a little under three hours, but I hadn’t just gotten off of two seperate flights totaling about nine hours travel time after driving an hour from my house to the airport this time so that was nice. Not that I had too much trouble even the first time, except upon entering Derry. I’m discovering I’m actually kind of built for being a driver on roadtrips, I didn’t need to pull over even once this time, just kept driving no problem! I have no issue with a long drive apparently! We had no trouble on the drive, nice and smooth down the A5 and we reached our hotel, the Bloomfield Hotel and Spa right on time, around 3pm. Our room was ready as soon as we arrived so we got to go right up, check it out, then head back to the car to get our stuff which we’d left thinking we might have to wait in the lobby for a bit before our room was ready.
Now, on the waiver Jess had to sign at check-in there was this box you had to tick off that you understood you couldn’t have any outside food or drink. We don’t know if that meant no ordering take-out or groceries to the hotel or if they were strictly against any outside food altogether, and we were too nervous to ask. We did, however, have a car full of three seperate boxes of take-out and we weren’t going to leave those in the rental car, so we decided it was for the best we had left our luggage in the car as it gave us a chance to shove the boxes as best we could into our suitcases to sneak up to the room. Was this entirely necessary? I have no idea. But I wanted my chili chips and scones and I wasn’t willing to risk it! So up to the room our luggage and food went so we could rest for a quick minute and get ourselves made-up and ready for the fire festival!
Around 4:30ish we headed out to the car for the 5 minute drive to the parking area anyone who didn’t pay for the premium parking had to park at to then take a complimentary shuttle to the festival. Worked for us as it meant less driving and more chilling! We were parked, checked in, and loaded onto the shuttle in a matter of minutes and were getting off the bus and beginning the walk to the festival grounds by 5pm! The shuttle dropped all of us off in a gravelly parking area and we were all guided to follow a path that led us across the street to a long, winding gravel and rock pathway uphill and downhill and all over. I think that was many attendees first taste of the kind of walking they were about to experience for the entirety of the festival. Jess and I had read up though and knew the festival took place across a huge swath of farmland and had packed sneakers almost especially for the day. We had a lovely jaunt on the path up to the gates that welcomed us all to the Beltane Fire Festival!
First impression was that the festival area was huge! To our left we could see vendors and a giant horse figure up on a small hill, to our right we saw a line of food vendors that looped around to being in front of us too. We began our expedition to the right and discovered immediately that what we could see from the entrance was actually maybe one fourth of the entire grounds. Possibly one sixth, even. The trail of food trucks was interrupted by a fairy garden and a large stage where lots of people had set up blankets and tents to watch the live performances running until 8:30pm. We stopped for a second in the fairy garden but it was quite crowded so we moved on to take some pictures in front of the many different statues and sculptures around that area.
Beyond the food trucks and food vendors there was a verifiable army of portapotties just plopped to the left behind the last of the food trucks at the front. There was never a line for the bathroom while we were there, there were just too many toilets all open for use by anyone, none of this Mens Side/Women’s Side nonsense. They’re portapotties, they’re all single stall, stop wasting space with pointless dividers and just plop them all down somewhere for everyone to use. Beyond the toilets, however, was a lot of things that took us all day to discover! First up was the Catseye Stone! We didn’t know what that was when we started following signs pointing to it, but it was warm and sunny out and we were in the mood for a good Jane Austen-esque walk so we followed the signs up and downhills, passing many poor souls already abandoning their shoes to go barefoot instead, until we came upon a large rock overlooking a magnificent view. It seemed to be a rather important rock as there were people doing all kinds of rituals around it and with it, most specifically people were touching it and walking clockwise around it. We just did the ugly tourist thing and took pictures in front of it, but we had a good time doing it! I’m sure Jessica knows what it is but Celtic mythology is her strong suit and not mine but when I was going to ask I rubbed my hand over a plant beside the rock and it must’ve had some kind of protective prickles or poison or something because the side of my hand felt a little pain and then a dull prickling sensation and I forgot entirely to ask.
Back uphill we went to another series of tents and flower arches up a ways which turned out to be, among other things, the place where handfastings were taking place and, we believe, where people were learning how to make flower crowns but we didn’t see anyone making any while we were passing through. They had a cute bunny statue there though, which makes sense, we supposed, for the handfasting location. Beyond that we could see the pire that would be lit later in the evening and decided not to check that out just yet as we were going to get there eventually anyway. We instead headed to the right where there was basically the Irish equivalent of a SCA encampment which was interesting enough but not really our thing, and beside that there was a Family Corner which was filled with all kinds of wooden games for kids and their families to play with, which we thought was a great idea. This is an all-day experience, from 3:30pm if you arrive at the very start to past midnight if you stay until the very end, so kids are going to get bored and fussy and cranky but having a place they can go, for free, to play with some unique toys and meet other kids is just what they need to keep from having a total meltdown.
Beside that, now basically in the center of the festival grounds, we found a circle of item vendors and while I was just looking, not really considering what I might want to buy or if I was looking for anything in particular, I spotted this absolutely bonkers insane seashell ring. Big, hulking, gaudy, totally insane. I picked it up, tried it on, and had to have it. The sales woman gets my full respect cause she saw right away I liked it and just let me fall in love with it. I said “I’ve never seen anything like this before” to Jess and she said “And you’ll never see anything like it again” and I asked how much it was and handed her the money right that second. She didn’t explain what it was made of, which I didn’t ask, or where it was from, which I didn’t ask, or talk up how it looks on me or anything. I said it looked unique, she agreed, and she got the sale.
On leaving the booth, however, Jess and I found ourselves wondering if that was, in fact, an item she was actually selling, or if it wasn’t just something someone had left there. It hadn’t been with the other rings and it seemed to be in a random spot in front of other things that didn’t seem related. I don’t really think this woman sold us some else’s forgotten property, but honestly how funny would it be if she did? Talk about sales technique! Jess decided she was determined to also find something to buy too. We checked out the official merchandise shop but only ended up getting a gift for a friend back home and decided to think it over while having some ice cream. There were two ice cream trucks back-to-back by the front of the festival so we just picked the one with the shortest line and each got a cone. I got an oreo soft serve and Jess got a soft serve with sprinkles. Both were excellent, if a little light on the toppings. Ice cream in hand we checked out the booths at the top of the hill we had seen but not visited upon first entering the festival, then went back to the vendor circle we’d been to when we got my ring, then returned to the hill vendors when Jess decided she actually did want a hagstone-style necklace she’d seen at one of the blacksmith vendors because it had led to a conversation about the Spiderwick Chronicles and she felt that was as good a reason to get an item as any!
My ring on my finger and her necklace around her neck, Jess and I had now seen pretty much everything at least once and decided our next course of action would be to get some Real Food and head up to the pire to see if anything was going on up there, aside from the yoga class we had seen from a distance on the return from the Catseye Stone. We picked a random food truck that had what seemed to be a short line, but it seems we’d just come at a bad time as they looked understaffed and low on food and were not only taking a while getting orders but were actively forgetting which ones they’d already done and not even started yet. They had sorted some of that out by the time Jess and I got to the front though as we got our food after only a few minutes when we knew some of the people who had been waiting before us had stood for almost a half-hour. We got a burger and chicken burger each, both with chips, and munched on the chips as we began the long walk up the hill to the pyre. Up there it was WINDY so when we passed by the pire and saw the area where the yoga classes had been and where another tent was offering some kind of holistic healing ritual we sat ourselves down beside a white… thing in the middle of the area. It might have been an art piece, or maybe it was just part of the farm, but either way it was a great wind block so we situated ourselves there to eat our burgers and chat.
Having finished about half of our food we thought about going back down the hill to the water station to top up the bottle we’d brought but on the way we saw a cracker spot around the pire and decided to set up there as it was a half-hour to 9:10pm, the predicted sunset time. So Jess held the spot while I got my exercise running down the hill to the water station by the stage, then did the run back up to join her. Around the pire a pair of storytellers were telling tales of Irish lore and myth while about a baker's dozen horse riders in festival attire rode around the pire. The speakers and mics both had some technical problems so the sound in some places came out like the intercoms at supermarkets, and when the speakers got too close to each other the mics frequencies got messed up and loud whir came through on the already somewhat muffled speakers. Still, we got the gist of it and the two of them were quite funny when they were riffing on each other. We also got to hear how Uisneach is actually pronounced as no one else we’d met had known when we’d asked aha! Turns out it’s basically Ish-Knock. We naturally had to make some silly joke between ourselves about how the name should be easy to remember as it’s the same name as our secret triplet, Ishmear. “That’s what’s happening today, Ishmear’s knocking, they’d like to finally come home.” Not a joke that lands with anyone but the two of us, but now we can’t forget how to pronounce Uisneach!
The sunset was predicted for 9:10pm but that didn’t happen and the pire can, by tradition, only be lit after the sunset. Most of the assembled crowd didn’t seem to get that though and they started to get antsy, particularly the children in front of us who didn’t understand why the storytellers kept saying they were going to tell another story. They were funny about dealing with the crowds impatience though! They asked if everyone wanted to hear another story and upon receiving the resounding “No!” the sister of the group went “Are you sure? We wouldn’t want to impose!” and at the second louder “No!” the brother went “All right, here we go!” and they launched into another story! I love a good “Too bad” bit! Jess and I had a grand time listening and also just generally chatting as we all awaited the sunset.
The sun did, of course, set, though about an hour later than expected, and the Procession began! Hordes of people in various costumes relating to the seasons and old gods and goddesses carrying all kinds of Celtic paraphernalia from star and moon lanterns to fire sticks to old battle horns to bull masks or pulling floats of a giant rabbit, horse, and raven on posts. One even pulled a cart full of just fire! The Procession made several laps around the pire while the Triskelion were burning and the storytellers were going buck-wild on the mics to get the audience hopped up and raving for the piece-de-resistance, the lighting of the fire! The storytellers did an excellent job keeping the energy high while they waited for the all-clear from the authorities as the wind had picked up considerably at the top of the hill. Finally a roar came from both the storytellers and we knew the fire was being lit!
We were around the back of the pire so our crowd had to wait a second to see the fire from inside the pyre as it crept through the underside across the brush laid at the bottom. It was like a vocal wave as the circle of people surrounding the pyre all, in turn, caught sight of the flames engulfing the wood! We all cheered even harder when this large nest of brush that had been carried up to the top of the pyre finally caught flame and then, unshockingly, produced an enormous amount of sparks and cinders took flight on the wind and into the crowd somewhat to our left. At that point the authorities started telling people in that section to back it up as the wind showed no signs of letting up and there was plenty of fire left to go! We stayed for some time as the fire burned and the fire dancers returned to perform around the pyre, enjoying especially the warmth produced by the enormous flame!
When the Procession began the journey back down the hill, Jess and I elected to follow and were forced to go through the section being assaulted by the sparks and cinders from the fire. It was hilarious! It was like bobbing and weaving through a war zone as we navigated through people trying to shield themselves and tried to avoid getting hit with debris when we ended up in the open. There was screaming and laughing and running and it was quite the occasion and we enjoyed ourselves immensely! We both got hit a handful of times but were altogether unscathed as we headed down the hill, following the trail of lights that had turned on to try and guide our poor stumbling souls across the field. There was some light tumbling but we all made our way to the front of the festival where a band had begun the post-fire concert. Jess and I filled our water bottle and were going to hit the bathroom but then decided to take a turn about the Fairy Village as it was on the way. It was so cute! I love a good fairy village with little fairy houses and at night the lights in the houses actually worked so I think it was for the best we waited to see them because they were delightful in the evening!
After that we got back on the path towards the bathroom but above the stage we saw a giant blazing bull being raised into the sky via crane. The storytellers had told us to look to the sky after the fire for a “surprise” and we assumed that was it, a giant burning bull, but it turns out that was just to get everyone’s attention for the fireworks! It was a short, pleasantly quiet firework show and we were quite glad we’d gotten distracted by the Fairy Village otherwise we might have missed it, or been down the hill the other way instead of on top of it, which was an optimal viewing point! Post-fireworks we did hit the bathroom again and saw there was absolutely no line for the other ice cream truck, the one we hadn’t hit earlier, and decided to get a cone each for the long walk back to the shuttle. I got a cup of chocolate/caramel while Jess got a raspberry cone. The ice cream itself was just vanilla soft serve but the ice cream was drizzled with a flavoured syrup, which was thought was an interesting way to do it. Meant there wasn’t a lot of flavouring to the ice cream, but it was tasty anyways and we had a grand old time eating them as we headed back.
The walk back was cold and dark but we didn’t mind, with our ice cream in hand riding the high of having gotten to our festival at last! We waited about a half-hour for the shuttle, not long at all, and were back at our car by about midnight. Then it was a quick drive home where, as I pulled into the hotel parking lot I, for the first time since arriving, made a right turn and began driving on the right side of the parking lot on instinct. Jess corrected me pretty quickly so I was only doing it for a minute pulling into an empty parking lot, but I was surprised that was the first time I’d done it! I was expecting I’d be a much lousier driver in Ireland than I turned out to be. I’m still kind of lousy, but not as lousy! It was about 1am when we got in and we were fully ready for a good night sleep so it was get cleaned up, get changed, and get into bed for a lovely rest after a lovely day! The fire festival was exceptional, everything we wanted it to be and more, and I recommend it fully to anyone heading to Ireland!
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