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Press and Police Building for Solstice / Glastonbury Confrontation

Free Future | 15.06.2002 12:51

While many people have been working hard to secure a peaceful future for the solstice (21st June) at Stonehenge it appears as though the press (and police) are simply preparing for more conflict.


As mentioned in the good article "Glastonbury - Corporate takeover " at  http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=33350&group=webcast people involved with the Stonehenge Peace Process -  http://www.greenleaf.demon.co.uk/sppmenu.htm and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Stonehenge (TRC) -  http://www.greenleaf.demon.co.uk/trc.htm , as well as other interested parties, have been trying to find some park up land for people to use in between the solstice and glastonbury festival.

It seems the police have been trying to stop such initiatives by warning off landowners, and there are rumours that they also have approched the agents of m eavis (glasto farm owner and main organiser) telling them to stop trying to help with the process.

This comes ontop of the orders for eavis not to provide a traveller park up field for the glastonbury festival itself.

Now the local press is gearing up - this from TRC mailing list:

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Amesbury Journal: TRAVELLERS PUT IN BID FOR LAND


The Amesbury Journal (which is the Salisbury Journal local edition) writes:

THOUSANDS of travellers with nowhere to go between next week's Stonehenge midsummer solstice gathering and the opening of the Glastonbury Festival are seeking to persuade landowners to provide them with park-up sites.

But the approach by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for Stonehenge looks certain to be rebuffed by farmers and other landowners, who have bitter memories of the problems they had reclaiming their fields after the huge solstice gatherings of the early and mid-1980s.

Paul Millard, press spokesman in the south-west for the Country Landowners' Association, said: "I am not aware at this stage of any of our members being asked for permission to use their land.

"But if approaches are made to them we would strongly advise them against allowing encampments on their property because of the inherent problems of repossessing the land afterwards."

TRC, which campaigned for access, said action was needed this year to provide somewhere for people moving between Stonehenge and the Glastonbury Festival to park up and camp.

As there was a five-day gap between the Stonehenge solstice on June 21 and the Glastonbury event they were inviting landholders to consider entering a business arrangement to provide one or more park-up sites for travellers.

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(This is a possibly abbreviared version from the paper's website)

(This is based on a press release issued 4th May! We had hoped to get interest at that stage from landholders. The plan was to send fax to local papers, I researched local papers, Brian got back to me to me with their fax numbers, asking can you send them out? I couldn't so the press release didn't go to the local papers, due to zilch resources at our unfunded overstressed quasi-organisation.)

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The associated story headed "20,000 May extend Party" reads:

UP to 20,000 people are expected to attend next week's Stonehenge summer solstice and police fear many of them will stage a gathering in the region following the dawn ceremonies on the longest day of the year. It will be the third year running that the monument will allow free open access.

More than 14,000 revellers attended last year, creating a carnival atmosphere and leading many to believe that the violence and confrontation associated with the solstice in other years was now a thing of the past.

But it is what happens after the solstice ceremony that is causing some concern.

Supt Jerry Wickham said police believed there would be some kind of traveller gathering after Stonehenge.

He said: "We know 100,000 tickets have already been sold for the Glastonbury Festival. "There is no doubt that any person going to Stonehenge who is intending to go on to Glastonbury and who has not got a ticket will have problems.

"It is likely a lot of them will try and hold a gathering somewhere in the area between Stonehenge and Glastonbury."

Anyobody offering to help the TRC with its press work is invited to make contact.

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Also see:  http://www.thewarpexperience.com/stonehenge/2002/

Free Future

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