Video: Ottery Tar Barrels Festival: fired up for fun A small boy, appropriately named Ash, has been selected for the honour of "first pickup" on the opening barrel. As flames belch from the end of the barrel, Ash looks on, pale and trembling. The crowd, pressing in on all sides, shout their encouragement ... and suddenly, Ash is gone, running through the crowd with the flaming barrel in his mitt-covered hands, doing what his fathers and forefathers have done before him. After a quick dash of 20 or so paces, Ash passes the barrel to another child, who dashes off in his own direction - and so the barrel rolling has begun. It's chaotic, raucous and lightning quick. Parents proudly look on as their children take their rite of passage. I find Ash with his mum afterwards and they are both jubilant. She tells me, "all four of my boys have done it, and he's the last; I couldn't be prouder." Ash is clearly delighted with himself, a child again, speaking in monosyllabic sentences - immediately before his run he felt "sick," the barrel felt "heavy," now he feels "happy." When I ask if he'll do it again he responds with an enormous grin and an enthusiastic nod. As darkness falls, the barrels grow in size, and the barrel rollers increase in age. By 6pm it's the turn of the intermediates (boys aged 16-18), eager to prove themselves. Tar smoke and testosterone fill the air, and the atmosphere changes perceptibly. The barrels are spectacular - fast, frenetic and noticeably more fiery than their smaller counterparts. Crowds have begun to gather in earnest now, with thousands of visitors from around the region thronging the small town square. As the boys charge around, hyped up with adrenalin, the crowds dive and scatter, parting like a shoal of fish, screaming, whooping and laughing with every close encounter. Several times I find myself staring at a flaming barrel charging headlong in my direction. I dive out of the way, colliding with complete strangers, and we all help each other back to our feet with enormous, sooty grins on our faces. The shared adrenalin rush is extraordinary. "You have to wait until the barrel gets right up close and then duck," one woman tells me. You can't move too early! By the time the midnight barrel comes around, the crowd in the square is pressed together in a single, jostling, cheering entity. I am struck by the size of the crowds, but locals tell me that this is a quiet year. Some years, they say, the festival attracts up to 25,000 visitors. The size of the crowds and the nature of the event raises obvious safety concerns, but the organisers are adamant that they take this side of things very seriously. "Everything is taken care of on the night," says Dave Strawbridge, chairman of the Tar Barrels subcommittee and a barrel roller for the past 42 years. We police it ourselves, with marshals on the ground who are experienced barrel rollers. The emergency services are on the fringes in case there's a problem, but we've got everything in place to make it safe for everyone. I manage to place myself right in the centre of the crowd for the lighting of "The Midnight." As it turns out, this is not the most sensible idea as the giant barrel bursts with flames of eyebrow-singeing intensity. As it is rolled round to allow the air to get to the tar, the barrel rollers - grown men now in their forties and fifties - shield their faces with their hessian mitts. The crowd sways this way and that as the fire scorches those nearest the barrel, and when the colossus is finally lifted, the cheer is deafening. It is a team effort, the fruit of a lifetime of practice for the men who are carrying it. Eventually, the midnight barrel disintegrates into a pile of flaming timber as the breathless rollers gather in a circle around it. Surrounded by crowds of friends and strangers, they rasp their way through a verse of Auld Lang Syne, discordant and defiant in equal measure. For the barrel rollers of Ottery St Mary, this is far more than a tourist attraction. For them, this is a living tradition and an anchor of their identity. Long may it continue. For further information about the timings and dates for the annual Tar Barrels Festival, see otterytarbarrels.co.uk