I finally left the hill (thanks to the tech walkthrough) at a quarter to eight.
After six hours and two snowfalls, I've frozen my bollocks off. On the other hand, the practice went damn well (esp. walking around with the drummers — Beltane ain't Beltane without drums), and the tech walkthrough was also marvellous, starting as it did with our neidfire people showing that yes, we fucking can make fire. Everyone there was bloody impressed, and this was good. No major issues at the tech, the rest went well, and now I'm home and warm