Every year, Woodford Folk Festival holds a closing Fire Ceremony on New Year’s Day. Due to obvious reasons (the weather being incredibly dry and the rest of Australia being on fire already), Woodford decided to forgo the ‘fire’ part of the ceremony. The event was a still big deal, the culmination of the festival and celebration of the past seven days.
I made my way with thousands of others to the packed outdoor arena as giant, neon puppets scattered across the stage. I found a small spot in the grass at the top of a hill where I decided to sit, drinking my turmeric and ginger tea and waiting for the event to start.
I suddenly felt a shart pinch on my upper thigh, just before where my jean shorts began. I thought my shorts were just bunching up and had pinched my leg. A few seconds later, I felt another pinch. And then another. After a few minutes, my entire butt and whole upper thighs began to feel numb, shortly followed by feeling like they were on fire.
If you’ve ever gotten a tattoo, the sort of burning, vibrating sensation it gives is similar to the feeling I was experiencing in most of my lower body.
I started to panic, thinking maybe I had just been bitten by something and was having an allergic reaction. I brushed my legs but couldn’t feel anything, bugs or bites. I decided to find a medic tent, but my legs were pretty wobbly from feeling like they were on fire, and I was fighting the crowd that was still pouring in to find a seat.
After twenty minutes, I finally found the medic, and by this point, the burning, tingling sensation has spread to most of my thighs and lower torso.
“What seems to be the problem?” the medic asked.
“It’s kind of embarrassing,” I admitted.
“Did you get bit on your bum or something?” he joked. I stared at him. “Oh,” he responded.
I explained my symptoms to him.
“You don’t need to show me the bites. Sounds like you sat on a pile of fire ants. No need to worry about it, but it’s gonna hurt like a bitch for the next few hours.”
Sitting in a pile of fire ants has to be one of the most Australian experiences I could have had. What the medic didn’t tell me though was the worst part of being bit by fire ants – the pain subsides after a few hours, but a few days later, each of those bites turned into little blisters, making it for a very unpleasant bus ride back to Brisbane.
I sat on a pile of fire ants at the fire ceremony while much of the country was on fire.
I didn’t get to see the ceremony, but below is a video of 2018’s fire ceremony to give an example of what I missed.