The Flora Faddy Furry Dance Day (1989)

• 78%
• 1989
• Richard Philpott

Every May an ancient pre-Christian Spring ritual is performed in the streets of Helston in Cornwall, south-west England. Throughout the Flora Day, the population perform the Furry (or Faddy) Dance in long procession through the banks, shops, houses and streets, all decorated with greenery and flowers, following the town silver and brass band as they endlessly repeat their unique, mesmerising tune from 7am to about 7pm when the final dance ends. These celebrations form the most ancient and certainly the biggest ritual dance still performed in Britain today, recalling the Celtic festival of Beltane with its rituals of purification, fertility, the triumph of Life over Death and the victory of Light over Darkness. In Christian times, the Flora Day also came to mark the Apparition of Archangel St. Michael (the dragon slayer and patron saint of both Helston and Cornwall) who defeated Satan after a furious battle for the possession of the town. "Philpott continues his admirable exploration of Britain's alternative/folk culture with this brief study of a Cornish dance festival. Inserted images suggest the pre-Christian roots - but the final impression is the irony of just how sterile, meaningless and bourgeois our rich mythical traditions have become." - Geoff Andrew, Time Out, London.