Celebrating Imbolc

Last night I went to Marsden for the Imbolc Fire Festival, which is always a brilliant event! I've mentioned it here before, two years ago (it's a biennial event) and you can see photos from the 2016 event in this post : http://louises30dayswild.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/day-251.html

It was so good to be outdoors (even in the dark, in the rain), stretching my legs and getting a good dose of fresh air. House renovations are ongoing so I'm still not getting out and about yet, weekends are all pretty busy, though this month I have two more non-house days planned which I'm looking forward too.

I drove over the snowy hills yesterday afternoon, ate an early dinner in Pizza Express in Glossop which I enjoyed all the more as it's been so long since I've been out and done nice things, rather than painting and DIY! Then I drove on to Marsden in West Yorkshire.

The Fire Festival begins with a torch lit procession from the village to Tunnel End.

A battle between Jack Frost and the Green Man takes place, after a fair bit of playing with fire.

Jack Frost

Enter Green Man

My photos are a mix of my usual camera and a new phone and the videos were taken on the phone, to test it.  Below is a video of the battle between Jack Frost and the Green Man. Not the best quality, but better than I expected.  It's 5 minute video, with the battle from about 2 minutes in.


The Green Man wins of course, and there's a celebration of renewal and regrowth, with the sun putting in an appearance and a white, orange and golden firework display to end the night with a celebration of the coming of spring.

Mr Fox then do their dance just outside the visitor centre.  The Mr Fox dance is one of my favourite things, especially the Night of the Hunter's Moon at Langsett (I've not made it to that for a few years though - hopefully I will this year). This is a slightly shorter, smaller scale performance, but still very good :)

Again, there's a bit of video, this is a 12 minute section of the dance...


If you ever have the chance to see Mr Fox, I highly recommend it, they are based in Langsett but do travel around a bit. The Imbolc Fire Festival is always good too! Last time 3000 people attended and this year if felt even busier, despite the rain.


As an extra, I've just found my videos from the 2014 Langsett Fox Dance. The first video is around half an hour and the second is around fifteen minutes.  I know that's a long time to sit and watch but I'm sure you'd enjoy it if you have time for it but the first ten minutes of the second video below is quite a nice mix. Otherwise, you could just flick through and watch bits, that's up to you.  The music is lovely though so it's worth listening to a bit. Apologies for the poor sound quality and shakiness (especially towards the end, as I was getting pretty cold after standing still outside, on cold wet grass, for a few hours!).