I am lost for words. Is it another case of "Well this looks like a popular event, lets milk it for all it is worth" on the part of the council or what?

The Council is admitting underestimating the cost of administration by 2611 percent? Either someone down there can't count to save his life, or they've just hired an entire division of folks to stamp entertainment licences.

I wonder if the Usher Hall will also see its costs rise by a factor of 27? My bet is not, and there's something fishy going on here.

I can't believe that cost of administering entertainment licences is £3200 or will be £8000 by 2009.

Perhapps the simple truth is that certain council officers have had it in for Beltane for years and this is there way of finaly killing it off.

They should be honest enough to simply say they don't like it and want to shut it down rather than this.

well, it's about time the event realised that if they want to run a huge scale festival, and adhere to all the legislation AND keep the Council happy it all takes money.

The BFS may be a grassroots organisation but it is NOT a charity. If the BFS wishes to receive the benefits of being a charity then they should pull their fingers out and get it sorted. Otherwise they should grow up and stop whinging and pay up like good little festival organisers - just like everyone else e.g. The Fringe, The International festival etc., etc..

The BFS has repeatedly applied to be a charity - I've filled in the applications myself. We have used educational outreach a lot of community education projects happen on the side but have had rude letters back saying "Theres no chance you will obtain charitable status for a drunken party on a hill". I think in most cases the months of effort we put in with application was not even read.

If we applied on religious grounds as Beltane is a Pagan festival then there would be no problem with charitable status but it would alienate many volunteers as only some are practicing pagans

Why should Beltane not pay what every other festival in the city has to pay - Its about time they were brought into line with everyone else. They have had a free reign for too long now.

I would pay more than £5 to watch naked women dance round fire.

Absolutely Beltane and the rest of the festivals should be made to suffer. After all why should Edinburgh get the Fringe and naked ladies dancing?

In Glasgow all we get is weirdy beardies at the 'Jazz Festival' :o(

It's not the first time someone has experienced a ring of fire on Calton Hill. There should be adequate insurance

Mind, if there were 12,000 folks there, even 8 grand is only 67 pence each.

Perhaps a more subversive ploy here would be to check that all other folks, say people having "Pornfires" or folks doing "Take back the night" marches, or even Carol Singers, are also paying the 8 grand administration fee. If the Council are up to no good here, the Carol Singers will soon sort them out.

#1 Vinny got it right. Something else the council can do a Bilko on. Mind you, the numbers are being capped to get there on May Eve, but there's still a lot of dosh to be made. Sorry to say, but it may have to be commercialised to allow it to continue. I see no prob with paying to be at a drunken party watching near nude people writhing round a bonfire. Just not over the odds.
Then again ... it's as near a religious experience as any Service or Mass I've ever been to. If Jedi Knights can be a religion ... why not Beltainists?? We pagans have been going to the Fire festival since it started ... and the Christians hijacked Arthurs Seat years ago for their soppy, geeky hymn singing.
Gimme a fire and a drum any May Eve night!!

Vinny, you stick to your Christmas pal, I for one relish the thought of a good auld jig roon the big fire and then rollin aboot oan mother earth. This is a celebration for everyone with a pagan heart and what better occasion to celebrate than the birth of spring? I am soooo lookin forward to the faces o the folk oan the train back to Glesga, when I come oan stinkin o smoke and covered in dirt and leaves.

If the license doesn't include the cost of road closures and cleansing, or anything else that the council can think of, what exactly is it that anyone, never mind the Beltane Festival, get for their money? That is apart from an empty pocket.

Andy#5: Since the grasping politicians think of it only as a drunken party on a hill with a fire thing going on perhaps you could persuade a well known figure to argue your case. Mike Watson apparently has some free time.

Beltane = Pagans

Ewan Aitken = Christian Rev

Conflict of interests.

Sounds to me like some Council members are entirely too...Christian (Being Christian at all in other words) and are trying subversively to stamp out the Pagan festivals. Now that they can't kill and torture people to get them to convert to their hypocritical religion, they do underhanded things like...try to price them out. What a shame.

Get some company to buy the tv rights. There is a limit as to how much cricket, football, tennis, rugby or golf one can watch. A wee fire festival sounds a bit of OK. Provided of course that the wee lassy in the picture comes back next year and I remember to take my heart pills before I tune in.

Andy, post #5 complains about the amount of work he put into applications for charitable status:

"I think in most cases the months of effort we put in with application was not even read"

Similarly, Edinburgh Council's licensing staff will probably have put in months of effort in order to grant the public entertainment licence. Having such a licence granted requires clearance from several other organisations including the police, firemaster, environmental services, road services, building standards, planning and many others. The application process can take up to 6 months. Its not a case of stamping a form and that it. There are complex public liability issues as well.

If this event has, till now, been charged merely £295 for the licence then frankly that has been a steal. The cost of applications has, by legal provision, to fairly reflect the amount of work required to process them.

Watch for the kickback when the new licensing laws transition period begins and every liquor licence in Scotland has to reapply - with an increase in the fees they were used to.

The BFS committee do sit on a committee with the police, council, ambulance staff and fire brigade to discuss safety and other issues as part of the councils large event planning. It is appreciated that this takes time but the most of the money appears to go to the council and not the other stakeholders. The cost for Beltane in the last 5 years has shifted from around £4000 to over £40000 and the former figure also included the other festivals as insurance ran year round.

Safety has always been of the highest priority and the event has always had adequate stewarding, police, first aid, fire cover and insurance.

The general cost breakdown includes

Hill hire (inflating per year at a fair rate)
Bond to cover any potential damage (usually returned)
Entertainment licence (recently required by the council)
Insurance - up from around £500 per year to almost £10,000 per event. Increased within a 1 year period post 9/11
St Andrews Ambulance
Security Staff (now required by council in addition to own security staff)
Hill cleanup costs (Beltane cleans up the hill themselves but the council must still be paid for cleaning services)
Hire of staging, barriers etc (majority of which is charged by council roads department)

Many of these fees are waived by the council for other events because the council have played a part in the organisation and advertising

We think of ourselves as a democracy. Therefore the actions of the government, at whatever level, supposedly represent our collective wishes. Will future generations say, 'For the want of a little security, liberties were lost?'

Government,using its powers of licence and taxation, is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master.

8. "In Glasgow all we get is weirdy beardies at the 'Jazz Festival' "

I saw "Linsey Dawn and her Big Swingers" in a basement club, but to be honest, I didn't notice whether the music was jazz or not.

This is appalling. Beltane used to be free to attend, and I can't see why any such licence should be required to dance about on our own hill. The Council should get its grasping hands off Beltane. What are the other political parties' views on this? Beltane is one of Edinburgh's best assets (and not just for dancing naked people): this is really one of the top ten reasons to sway my vote.

Unreal, Edinburgh people organise a festival FOR THEMSELVES on Edinburgh Coucil property (which the Edinburgh people own).

Some guy sticks it on a film, and Edinburgh Council (who apparently represent the people of Edinburgh) think to themselves "we can grab a piece of this".

So they start to market the thing so that people all over the world can come and enjoy this local festival. It becomes so successful that they become concerned about numbers and damage etc and force the Edinburgh people to charge each other to attend their festival, on their land.

Yup that's the council for me. Screw the residents but make sure the visitors are happy. If I ran the likes of Corstorphine Gala I'd be a wee bit worried, as surely this is the next event to get the "tourism factor".

And yet they praise Beltane for having the best health and safety record of the festivals.....

bupf: is "Linsey Dawn and her Big Swingers" the lassie from the picture?

#26 I agree.

Who wants to come to my newCarlton Hill Coffee Morning?