Where can a normal Saturday evening bring you face to face with a crowd of ravening zombies, a flock of faeries, headless corpses, dragons and monsters, all in the shadow of an ancient Abbey and an even more ancient sacred hill? All under the aegis of smiling policemen and the clergy of a variety of faiths and paths?

Of course… only in Glastonbury.

As the Silent Eye event said its farewells after a beautiful day the High Street was a sight to see. But not for the faint hearted….or weak stomached!

It wasn’t pretty. But, in a very real way, it was beautiful. The Zombie Walk was in aid of funds and awareness for Martha Care…each entrant had paid £5 for the privilege of dressing up and joining the walk, the costumes were appalling in their magnificence and creativity… and the police didn’t seem to mind being eaten.

Martha Care is a charity that supports and cares for families caring for very sick children. It was set up in memory of a little girl of eight months, diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour who died when she was seven. The heartaching journey of a family through such a time needs all the support it can get. There are some great pictures of the walk on their website.. do have a look, and perhaps learn about their work. Awareness matters.

The pubs and shops are decorated for Hallowe’en and Samhain… from the sacred to the downright gory… and through all the strange and disturbing horrors of that evening the faery folk flitted, heading for the Faery Ball. It was, I have to say, a surreal scene .. gossamer wings and Tolkein-esque elves mingled with the zombies in a town so replete with history and legend… you would not think it could hold so much, yet it does so with both grace and laughter.

A place that has been called the ‘holieste earthe’ in England… shops filled with wares from the serious to the ridiculous… courses and seminars, workshops and spiritual journeys for those of every path and persuasion… and still the town holds a sense of fun… and underneath it all, a beautiful culture of tolerance and acceptance.

There are many to whom the town is simply home and who do not engage with the Avalon of the heart. There are those who see it as a beacon of light and a place of pilgrimage. To the visitor it seems not  to matter… there is that indefinable ‘something’ about Glastonbury. Whether the spiritual quest is just beginning or has been a lifelong journey, there is something in the earth of legend and the stones of history, in the sacred springs and the candle flames, the quiet chapels and the windswept Tor that gets into the nooks and crannies of your heart and finds a home.