Missing person: Yulia

A member of our Beltane community in Edinburgh, Yulia, has gone missing and her friends and family are all very worried. She was last seen on Thursday 6th June at the Wee Red Bar on Lauriston Place at 9pm and last heard from at 2pm on Friday 7th June when she sent a text message to a friend.

Her friends from the Anansi performance group became concerned when she didn’t arrive to dance at a planned performance on Saturday. No-one has seen or heard from her since.

The police are aware of the situation so if you have any information at all, you can reach them directly by phone on 101 or 0131 311 3131, quoting the incident number 0639 and the date 12/06/13. You can also send them an email via contact@lbp.pnn.police.uk, again quoting the incident number and date.

You are welcome to join the YULIA IS MISSING Facebook group too, where you can find a downloadable poster and share any information you have. Feel free to share links to the following:

• YULIA IS MISSING Facebook group
• This blog entry
• STV article
• Evening News/Scotsman article
• This post on BFS’ Facebook.

The more people who see Yulia’s picture and details, the more chance we have of someone coming forward with information. Updates will be posted here as we have them.

2013-2014 Board of Directors appointed

Following yesterday’s BFS AGM, this year’s elected Directors are…

Tom Gibson
Doreen Hall
Alan Howse
Kat Kane
Tom Watton
John Wilson

The 2013-2014 Board was elected on 9th June and will be designating the roles of Chair, Secretary and Finance Officer for the coming year soon. If you have any questions or suggestions for the Board, please respect the fact that they’re going to be in hand-over and setting-up mode for the next couple of weeks and be patient while awaiting responses. Thanks!

Proxies must be registered by 3pm Friday

Just a final reminder for BFS members that you have until 3pm on Friday to register a proxy if you can’t make it to the AGM (3pm on Sunday 9th June) but would still like to vote. Your proxy must be…

- a member of BFS
- NOT a candidate for the Board
- NOT already proxying for anyone else (any member can only proxy for one person)

To register your proxy, please email chair@beltane.org with your name and your proxy’s name.

The people behind the pictures

If you’ve been following our social media for the last few weeks you’ll have seen LOTS of epic photos of everything Beltane-related from behind the scenes happenings like rehearsals to busks and walkthroughs to the event itself. These pictures aren’t just for Liking, Sharing and tagging yourself and your friends – they’ll also be used to promote BFS in online and offline press and media as well as exhibitions and promotional material in years to come.

Now that the majority of the pictures have found their way online, I’d like to take an opportunity to say thanks to the fabulous people behind the cameras, our own Contact Point photographers…

Daniel Rannoch of Flashmunki Photography
Check out his website and Facebook page

Heidi Korkala
Check out her photos on the BFS Flickr

Maciej of MacDor Photography
Check out his Facebook page

Mark Taylor
Check out his photos on the BFS Flickr

Nicole Taylor
Check our her photos on the BFS Flickr

Richard Winpenny of Winpenny Media
Check out his Facebook page and Flickr

Simon Crofts
Check out his website and Beltane photos on his blog here and here

Sylwia Kowalczyk
Check out her website

We want you…

…as a new recruit to the BFS Board of Directors!

Long-time Beltaner and many-time Board member Tom Gibson talks about his experience as a Director of BFS and encourages you to apply for a position on the Board this year.

Tom at Beltane 2013, photo by Richard Winpenny

Beltane is fantastic! It allows people an opportunity they would otherwise never have for wild experiences that can truly change their perception about who they are and their place in the world around them. Beltane can also be a lot of hard work, frustration and emotional drain; but ultimately the good outweighs the bad and we come back to do it again.

Being on the Board of Directors is the same – the fantastic feeling that you are helping to make the festival possible and so giving our membership the opportunity to experience something fantastic mixed with the frustration when things go wrong and you are left to try and pick up the pieces.

I’ve been on the Board of Directors quite a few times now in the 16 years since my first Beltane, including two stints as its Chair, and although on occasions it has been intensely frustrating I keep coming back because I want things be done as well as possible within the Society and want to contribute as much as I can in it.

This is your chance to contribute to the running of BFS if you feel the same way. It’s not a decision to be taken lightly as you will be expected to put in quite a bit of work but if you are passionate about the Society you might be the right person to join the Board.

I would say the most important qualities for a Board member are the will to work hard to forward the society, tolerance, empathy and a skin as thick as a rhino.

To apply to be a member of the BFS Board of Directors, please fill in the form available here and email it to scribe@beltane.org by the end of Saturday 25th May.

Beltane featured in TradFest video

This year, Beltane Fire Festival was a partner event in TradFest 2013, an exciting festival organised by the Scottish Storytelling Centre to celebrate traditional Scottish arts of music, song, storytelling, dance, crafts, folk drama and environmental celebrations.

The video above not only includes some lovely footage of Beltane, but also of the Mummers’ Walk, which BFS performers took part in, and lots of other fun and inspirational parts of TradFest. Enjoy!

Board application deadline 25th May

Just a quick reminder that the deadline for applications for the BFS Board of Directors is THIS SATURDAY, 25th May! If you would like to apply to be on the Board, now is the time to get your application filled in and sent to scribe@beltane.org

All applications will be circulated to the membership shortly after the deadline, in plenty of time for the AGM at 3pm on Sunday 9th June in G25 at Arts Complex (151 London Road, Edinburgh). Board applicants will be expected to give a short talk to the membership at the AGM (3-ish minutes) and answer any questions from the membership afterwards before voting takes place.

The relevant paperwork is attached. Have at it, dedicated volunteers!

Board Application Form 2013
Responsibilities for BFS Board of Directors