Roughly 7,000 people were in attendance to witness an array of fire, dancing and sword fights during this year’s Oie Voaldyn Fire and Folk Festival in Peel.

The festival is named after the traditional Manx folk customs surrounding old May eve, and showcases a mix of contemporary and traditional music, dance, and theatre.

Performances, workshops, and interactive activities all took place, each of them looking to celebrate the transition from winter to summer.

The traditional Fire Festival on Peel Beach began at 9pm, with a fire being lit on Peel Hill to signal the start of the proceedings, as well as a firework display at 10pm to round out the day.

Last year’s festival was cancelled due to the lack of a sponsor, but organisers agreed a fresh sponsorship deal with Element Isle, a Manx jewellery company based at Tynwald Mills, for the event to go ahead again this year.

John Shakespeare, who was heavily involved in the organisation of this year’s event, commented: ‘Since 2018, the festival has grown organically to the spectacular show that was witnessed on Sunday night.

‘The atmosphere was so lovely throughout the day and the children’s mini Oie Voaldyn was one of my personal highlights.

‘This year, we have seen new groups like “Skimmee Ail” the fire spinning team grow to 20 members, and we celebrated a collaboration with Liverpool by bringing over “Bring The Fire Project” to help strengthen and train our own group to deliver one of the best fire shows the island has ever seen.

‘We also now have a drumming group which added more rhythm to the show and our own choir “Voices of the Sea”.

‘The beauty of Oie Voaldyn is the huge amount of people that take part both in and out of the arena, and it is a huge community project.’