Barrel Burners

INTERVIEW BY BOBBY TRACEY, PHOTOS BY JAMES PEARSON-HOWES

Vice: Um, what the fuck are these guys doing?

James Pearson-Howes:

It’s called Tar Barrels and it happens every year on November fifth. The local townsfolk take turns running through the packed streets with burning barrels of tar on their backs. It’s been happening in this small town for centuries—it’s amazing. There are no real safety measures. If you wanted to get your face burned off then it’s pretty easy to do so, but that just adds to the fun of it all.

Wait, where does this happen?

It’s a small town in Devon called Ottery St Mary. I’ve been researching odd British traditions and this was one I came across. The various explanations for Tar Barrels range from a pagan ritual for exorcising the town’s demons to fumigating the town’s houses. I got the impression from the guys doing it that it was simply a rite of passage for the local young men. You get whole generations of families doing it.

Do people get hurt? It looks like a good way to fuck oneself up.

It’s pretty dangerous. If you stood in the path of one of these guys running full speed with a big barrel of burning tar, you’d have some damage done. But the only person I saw get hurt was a girl who wasn’t looking. She didn’t move out of the way quickly enough, and she got trampled on. They have a marshal who calms things down if the barrel rollers get too rowdy. A 13-year-old kid that I spoke to, who has been doing it since he was 10, got his face burned last year and said that the barrel rollers are the ones who are usually burned or hurt, not the innocent bystanders.

That’s some comfort, I suppose. Are they all wasted or something?

No one I spoke to was really pissed, but I’m sure it helps. I wouldn’t do it without a few beers.

What other messed-up rites are you looking into?

A lot of the events are pagan-related, but I’m trying to concentrate mainly on the weirdest and most extreme ones. I’m off to Cambridge soon to photograph a man who dresses up as a 12-foot straw bear, and a few days after that I’m shooting an event in the Midlands where all the townsmen fight over a bit of wood.