Often billed as Asia’s most spectacular pageant, the Esala Perahera is held in the Sri Lankan hill town of Kandy during the lunar month that occurs around the end of July. Each night for ten days, a parade of dancers, drummers and elephants is held, and each night it grows larger and larger until the final night (on the night of the full moon) when about 5,000 dancers in traditional dress, bands of drummers and over 100 brightly decorated elephants take about three hours to parade through the streets of Kandy.

These men on stilts signal the start of the parade – they are swinging coconut husks tied to wires that are soaked in oil and set alight. Some swing them off their heads or with their feet – one way of clearing the road for the parade!