Burryman

Possibly a bit cheeky doing this with a blipthefestivals tag, but th eFerry Fair is on during the Edinburgh Festivals, we're within the city boundry and you do get festival visitors coming out to see what's going on.

I moved out here first when I was two and my whole life the Burryman has been one of the main parts of the Ferry Fair. While it's clearly pagan in origin I think the actual reason for the ceremony has been forgotten, but every year on the Friday of the Ferry Fair a local man starts off at 7am where he gets wrapped in felt and covered head to toe in sticky burrs then paraded through the streets of Queensferry. I think it's about 12 hours in total and everywhere he goes he's supposed to be offered a nip of Whisky. Quite how anyone is standing after 12 hours of drinking whisky in a suit made of felt and burrs is beyond me, but somehow they manage it every year....