Ottery St Mary is a small town in Devon where every year, around Bonfire Night, they hold a hyperlocal tradition involving tar barrels. Barrels are soaked in petrol and set alight, to then be carried on the shoulders of locals who run back and forth around the town until the barrel collapses and the fire goes out. Only those who have been born in the town and who have lived there for their whole lives can run with the barrels, and many are members of the same families that have carried the barrels for generations.

It is thought that the tradition began in the seventeenth century as a way of warding off evil spirits, in conjunction with Halloween, but in the modern era, it is more an expression of identity, local pride, and has become a famously risky and adrenaline-fueled spectacle to watch, attracting visitors from across the UK.

The evening and the pictures remind me of the vivacity of belonging and the measures people take to claim their stake in their own histories, and those of their families and ancestors. The rarity of this type of event makes it extremely unique, but I wonder about the number of peculiar traditions that have been lost as people are decreasingly tied to their place of origin, and families become less likely to live in a singular town for many generations. As a surviving historical artefact, this performance evidences a tie between location and identity that need not be a thing of the past.