All Together for the Furry Dance...

Every May, thousands of people take to streets of Helston for a Cornish festival that’s “bigger than Christmas”. Ian Vince explains the strange fascination of an ancient rite.

- Ian Vince

An earthy sweetness hangs in the early morning air of the old Cornish town. It is a little before seven, and we make our way through car parks and back lanes to the town centre, where the doorways and windows of every shop and home are framed with flowers and foliage. Not just display windows, but delivery doors, coaching inn arches and back alley gateways; every entrance and exit is wearing its own spring garland. The perfume of bluebells blends with the coconut bouquet of gorse and the green scent of cut stems. The transformation began as the shops closed last night and it will all be gone by tomorrow. Today is special.

As the hour is struck by the town clock, a bass drum booms in the distance and the faraway strains of a brass band bounce off granite walls, echoes mixing together, wafting in and out of musical focus down the streets. All eyes are on the town’s Guildhall as the day’s proceedings begin with the Early Morning Dance.

I’m in Britain’s most southerly town, Helston, for its annual Flora Day, a celebration so old that nobody has the faintest idea when it started, although most will offer a vague ‘pre Christian’ label for it. The roots of Flora Day run deep in Helston – it’s a day the whole town is involved in, an occasion almost everyone celebrates because, as any Helstonian will tell you, Flora Day is bigger and better than Christmas.