Tar Barrels in Allendale (Special Happy New Year post)

New Years Eve / New Years Day 2019/2020

At 22:00, you arrive in the town of Allendale in Northumberland. You walk into the town square, and you find out that there is a giant bonfire in it. When the time is near to midnight, some people come out of the corner. These people are all residents of Allendale (aka Dale) and they arrive holding large barrels of the equivalent of tar (because tar is banned in the UK). They light the barrels of tar, while they are still holding the barrels of tar safely above their heads. Then, they walk around the town while being followed by a brass band. Soon after that, they form a circle around the bonfire in the square. 1 hour later, one by one, they throw their barrels into the bonfire and…

Happy New YEAR!!

That’s how the people in Dale on New Years Eve celebrate the new year. I was there at New Years Eve. While I were waiting for it to start, I was quite cold. But when they lit the bonfire, it was so hot that I couldn’t look! Dale take pride in the fact that so far, since they started doing it a long time ago, there have been no injuries while doing it. When they throw the barrels of tar on the bonfire, it looks like they could accidentally throw it in the wrong place or spill the tar, but that never happens.