The town of Allendale in Northumberland has a rather unique way of celebrating New Year’s Eve, with the townsfolk opting against the firework displays you may see elsewhere.
Instead, their celebrations mark a return of the old traditions of fire festivals, with the men of the town parading the streets with burning barrels of tar.
The Allendale Tar Bar’l takes place every year on New Year’s Eve that sees locals and visitors gather in the town centre from 11pm to see these rather strange festivities.
At around 11:30pm, a group of 45 men are called up to be guisers, after which the torches are lit and the barrels ignited.
The guisers set off on the procession whilst carrying whiskey barrels filled with burning hot tar atop their heads – making for a rather unique sight for the spectators.
If you’re hoping to take part as a guiser, you’ll be sorely out of luck.
Each man picked for the procession must have been born in the Allen Valleys, many of whom inherited the position from their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers.
The Allendale Tar Bar’l has been running for 160 years in its current form, but some argue that the tradition goes back much further, potentially even to the medieaval era.
The role of guiser is only granted to men. However, in the 1950s, a woman named Vesta Peart was allowed to carry one of the barrels, as the town thanked her for creating a number of the costumes for the Tar Bar’l, many of which are still in use today.
After working its way through the town, the procession comes to an end at midnight when it reaches the Bar’l fire in the town centre.
Here the barrels are used to ignore the bonfire, as the spectator shout: “Be damned to he who throws last.”
And Allendale Tar Bar’l isn’t the only fire festival that takes place on New Year’s Eve. Spectators at Flamborough Fire Festival in Yorkshire witness the burning of a Viking-style longship and a torch possession, while visitors to Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire can expect to see the Hogmanay Fireball Procession.