These incredible pictures show one of the UK's newest pagan festivals as thousands take to the streets of a rural town to mark the start of spring(Image: Bim Photography)

Incredible photos as Green Man wows thousands in Devon

03 May 2026, 15:00 by Miles O'Leary · DevonLive

These incredible pictures show one of the UK's newest pagan festivals as thousands take to the streets of a rural town to mark the start of spring.

The Green Man festival rivals Scotland's Burryman Procession and has its own disguised dancer, similar to the Obby Oss that dances on May 1 in Padstow, Cornwall.

But while the Burryman dates back around 900 years, the new ritual, held in Bovey Tracey, has only been running since 2018.

On Saturday, April 25, the star of the show - the Green Man himself - paraded through the town surrounded Morris dancers, before being defoliated at the climax of the ceremony.

Organiser Rob Patmore, a 59-year-old mental health nurse and Morris dancer for Grimspound, said: "I've been involved since the very beginning.

"We started in the park and we had a spot there then we had a spot where there was a pub that's now a co-op, and another somewhere else in the town. It's grown from that.

"Now we have four spots up and down the whole road. We close the road now which makes life so much better. It goes all the way from the top of Bovey to the bottom.

"We have a green man, bless him - he gets dressed up in his ghillie suit which he threads greenery through, any vegetation really. Ivy and stuff like it.

"Traditionally speaking we defoliate him at the end of the day, outside the Cromwell Arms. We do a mass dance with all the sides which is quite spectacular and defoliate him by removing all the greenery that he has."

Bovey Tracey's Green Man festival was started to celebrate the start of spring - a day which is marked by many pagan events.

Rob continued: "It's like the Obby Oss in Padstow, it's something to celebrate and to visualise the coming of spring.

"It's always been celebrated - May Day, there's festivals around this time dating back donkeys' years, thousands.

"It's very special, it brings a lot of spotlight down onto Bovey itself, which is fantastic, it brings a spotlight onto morris dancing, which is really great, and the old festivals that have been around for years, so it's a lovely combination of things.

"We just wanted to celebrate the fact that spring was coming, we dance on top of Hay Tor on May Day. May 1 is a big day for all sides.

"We wanted to bring something to Bovey, we practised here when we started, and it was a combination of the two.

"For a lot of sides it's the beginning of our season. We pracitce all winter then come spring or summer we come out and dance across all of Devon or where have you. So it's, 'here we are, here we go again'. It's that rebirth sort of thing."