A CELTIC celebration

Butser Ancient Farm will be marking the start of summer by burning a wicker man at their annual Beltain Festival

- Jack Watkins

Approaching along a quiet lane on a bright, still day in early February, with barely a twig moving, Butser Ancient Farm is a picture of peace and tranquillity.

From over the hedge come the voices of school children and as I get nearer the entrance they can be seen congregating round their teacher outside a prehistoric roundhouse, from which wafts the homely smell of a wood fire. It’s hard to believe this bucolic haven in a fold below the South Downs is just moments away from the noise and rush of the A3 motorway.

The place will have a different atmosphere in May on the day of the Beltain Festival, says Rachel Bingham, the farm’s creative developer. “Last year we had over 2,500 people through the gate. We sold all the tickets weeks in advance. It’s always a very lively occasion. There’s no-one else who stages anything like it and, as well as a lot of local support, we get visitors from as far afield as Europe and North America.”

Run as a self-supporting organisation, the festival is the main fundraising event of the year. Demonstrations of ancient skills, from bronze-casting and flintknapping to natural dyeing, take place against a backdrop of much swilling of mead, supplied by local producers, Chalice Mead in Petersfield, and folk music and dance performances. The feature moment is the burning of a giant wicker man. Traditionally this was always the climax of the Beltain festival, one of the old Celtic fire festivals which took place between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, hailing the start of summer and the warm days to come. Butser Ancient Farm has been maintaining that tradition for years.