Stonehenge Summer Solstice 2004 Report + Pics

With rain widespread before the solstice and a bad forecast, the number at this year's 'managed access' solstice celebration at Stonehenge (approx 21,000) was down by between one third to one half of the previous year. It still rocked though, and the issues remain as relevant today as they were ten or twenty years ago...

The sun breaking through the shrouding mist

Ceremony by the heal stone; new fire safety regs mean lit torches stay put

...so they can be 'safely dispossed' by fire crew on the other side of the fence

...so no procession around the stones... but is this a torch or a big spliff?

The corporate media crews were out in force all night

"Beam me up scotty!" - So too were the mobile picture phones... everywhere....

Inside the stone circle

Coaxing the sun from behind the clouds...

As the police enter the circle the sun does break through :-)

MORI exit poll

Thin yellow line - the final sweep out of the stone field

The last people are funneled out of the field - Happy Solstice!

Welcome to Stonehenge: "move along, nothing to see here...

On the night itself the rain stayed away, and the singnificantly reduced numbers made for a more relaxed, intimate and friendly celebration. The same cannot be said for the security arrangements, which this year infuriated many with a last minute snap decision ban on 'rucksacks of all sizes'! In previous years people have been banned from carrying large rucksacks into the site, but this year within five minutes of opening the site, the order was given that any 'rucksack-like bag' - ie daysacks etc, or bag with shoulder straps bigger than a woman's handbag, were also to be banned. This led to a lot of pissed off people who has just walked the distance from the seperate car park only to be told their bags were not allowed! Also given the rain of the previous days and the cold night it was also outrageous that security were not allowing people to bring in groundsheets to sit on! Being treated like children and controlled in such minor matters is certainly a statement from the powers that be.

Also because of the reduced numbers of people it made the number of security, police, and corporate press stand out more. As with previous years the powerful artificial lights were kept on way too long as the sky lightened and dawn approached - hundreds of people shouting "turn off the lights!".

The night was pretty clear and as said the rain stayed away. The transformation towards dawn was a tantalising and teasing one, as a thick mist descended onto the stones temporarily shrouding the site and gathered crowd, diffusing the early morning light. Then slowly it began to burn off and drift away as the sun struggled to shine through.

The ritual towards the end of the alloted access times played out again, as police and security steadily increased their numbers as the deadline passed, moving people on and tighening their cordon around the stones. With less people there than previous years it seemed like those left within the stones would be moved off very quickly this year, with much less of the 'stay and play' games of previous years (indeed the last few years have seen quite some push and shove) - however as the cordon of police moved into the perimeter of the stones, the sun finally broke the cloud cover, streaming down to cheers from the people, and some more time secured.

I don't know what happened at the closure of the car park as I left about midday. There were around 17 arrests reportedly for public order offences. I saw one guy arrested for climbing over a fence after being told he could not come in (presumably for being 'too drunk') - as the police approached him he dropped to his knees and was escorted away, with a brief scuffle as they wrestled him to the floor to handcuff him. I also saw a couple of other arrests - a minimum of two maybe three - a man wrestled to the ground cuffed and carried away, and woman dragged off at the same time. Asking around I was told they'd been shouting abuse at a corporate media tv crew, the police told them to stop, they didn't, et voila, knicked - that's what the witnesses said anyway. Drunken behaviour said one observer - but at stonehenge hardly an arrestable offence!.

Interstingly there were a bunch of MORI workers interviewing people and getting answers to a questionaire. There were a whole list of questions - from the mundane - how did you travel here? / how many in your party? to more intersting ones like are you here for spiritual reasons? One question stood out in particular - how long have you been coming to summer solstice at stonehenge? - choice of: 1, 2, 3 or 4 years? - thus completely ignoring the 25yr plus troubled and colourful history of celebration at Stonehnege. There was also a free answer question about what had been good / bad about this years arrangements and what could be done to improve things. We talked to several of the MORI pollsters (quite a few were archeological students recruited for the job), and it seemed almost everyone was complaining about the tight security arrangements and the stupid rucksack ban, as well as the articicial lights being on too long. The survey was commissioned by the stonehenge round table peace process and all of the parties, from the police to the council, to english heritage. We understand that the results will be made public, which should make interesting reading.

This year much harsher parking restrictions were in place both around the stonehenge area and also Avebury, where up to 1,500 people gathered to celebrate the solstice. Earlier on saturday night a free party was busted by police and prevented from happening around 30 miles from stonehenge.

This year was the 20th anniversary of the last Stonehenge Free Festival in 1984, when 70,000+ people gathered on land nearby the stones. The following year the authorities used the police to violently attack the festival community with an unprecedented display of brutality in what became known as the Battle of the Beanfield...

...if you don't know about this horrendous incident when the police went bezerk and attacked scores of people and vehicles - check out:

http://tash.gn.apc.org/sh_bean.htm

http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news25.htm

As many people continue to campaign for a peaceful return of the stonehenge people's free festival, next year's anniversary of the beanfield will surely be significant.

===============================

Also see:

Stonehenge Summer Solstice 2004 Pictures
alan lodge [Tash]

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/06/293800.html

more at:

http://tashcamuk.fotopages.com/?entry=141373

Summer Solstice at Stonehenge + road campaign update 2004

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/06/292736.html

New police powers to stop raves Might affect Stonehenge gatherings - 2004

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/06/293497.html

2003 Indymedia feature
Celebrate the Solstice

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/06/272815.html

Pics and report 2003

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/06/272952.html

2003 (avebury) report 2

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/06/273105.html

2002 pics

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2002/06/34477.html

2002 pre-article
Press and Police Building for Solstice / Glastonbury Confrontation

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2002/06/33859.html

2001 pre-feature
Stonehenge and Glastonbury ambience threatened by Police and big business

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2002/06/104004.html

sunshine

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

Great Pics

25.06.2004 13:30

Nice to see some quality pics of events, hope you keep on roving with that camera.

IMF

More solstice 2004 pictures

25.06.2004 13:52

Sunset the night before

Man arrested and cuffed at around 1am

"Permission must be requested..." (unlikely and not adhered to by most crews)

Media film people being arrested

Another man wrestled to the ground and cuffed - he was shouting

Arrest pic 2

Girl dragged off and put into police van during the same incident

"BBC Shift Relief TV Crew" with spooky looking 'private security protection'

I'm not looking...

Security / Stewards leave stone field - that's all folks!

Stonehenge Summer Solstice 2004

sunshine

What about the stones?

25.06.2004 13:53

I have to say I am pissed off to see people climbing all over ancient monuments like these. Talk about bloody selfish. Thousands of years old, unique history of vital benefit for future generations and some drunken yob decides it's OK to climb all over them.

You can see the sun rise without vandalism. Makes the football thugs in Portugal look tame at least they only broke up bars !

Jane

re stones

25.06.2004 15:02

Yes Jane you're right, people shouldn't really climb on them. The access guidelines do say this, and in fact for many years and this year also most often when people climb on them they're asked to get off - indeed many times the whole crowd has shouted for people to get down.

People climbing on them can damage the lichen growing on them, though I suspect that the stones themselves can stand up to a few odd feet now and then, having survived for 5000 or whatever years!

Er, not quite sure you can make a comparison with football thugs in Portugal though... but perhaps you could in comparing the people who have painted / spray painted stones like those in Avebury over the last few decades, for that is surely pure willful vandalism.

stonehead

Wankers

25.06.2004 15:36

Everyone I know has kept away from Stonehenge for the last few years. There was always an element of stupid drunk student but that now covers about 90% of those there these days.

The spiritual aspect of it is overlooked, even a basic understanding of the Solstice is beyond these people.

The damage to the stones is known about and laughed at. These pictures just confirm everything I feared.

Stu

Re wankers stu

25.06.2004 16:54

Stu, did you go this year? If you did then how could you possibly say:

"There was always an element of stupid drunk student but that now covers about 90% of those there these days"

I'm sorry, this is no where near correct at all, it's just rubbish mate.

The open access has certainly gotten more popular since it started in 2000 with five thousand people, growing significantly bigger each year, with a higher 'tourist' content of the crowd, but you can't call an age range from teenagers to whole generations of a family - grandad to baby - "stupid drunk student" types. You're miles off mate. Indeed if everyone you know has kept away for the last few years, how would you know? When did they last go then? during the riot police battles?

And as for saying "The spiritual aspect of it is overlooked, even a basic understanding of the Solstice is beyond these people" - well la-di-da! "these people" indeed!

Sure, for a lot of people who visit for the open access solsitice celebrations, it may well be the first time they have stayed up through the night to watch the sun come up on the solstice, but that's what they've made a choice to do, and this year in the face of rain rain and more rain. In fact this has been one of the best things about the last few years, seeing normal family types in converstation with hippie druid types, the discussions about what it means, seeing people from different backgrounds all waiting fot the sun to rise, together. How could it be more spiritual? Do you mean prioritising druidic ceremony over public access? Well this happens at the other solstice / equinox dates in the calendar for the select few... If you are concerned, then why not hand out a leaflet there explaining to "these" - happily uneducated celebrating normal - "people", just what the spiritual aspect is (in fact several people were handing out leaflets about the solstice, spirituality, the stonehenge peace process, the stonehenge road campaign etc etc).

I'm also not sure how these pics can quite "confirm everything I feared", and I for one know that saying "damage to the stones is known about and laughed at" is utter bullshit. I'm sure you could find a few people who don't give a shit, but the majority certainly do!

Peace.

stonehead

Sunshine

25.06.2004 22:48

Could Sunshine (the author of the article above) email me? I'd like to use the report on the Indymedia London radio show next week if possible :)

Casp

Casp
mail e-mail: casparian@gmail.com
Homepage: http://www.wiccauk.com/

torchlit parade

10.07.2004 11:31

Nice photos of the whole event here.

Can I just recitify, as chief fire steward for the Kings Drums involved in the firelit drum circle at the heal stone, that it was our choice not to parade around the stone circle this year, not a restriction placed upon us by English Heritage or Wiltshire Constabulary.

Firstly, due to weather, we barely had the manpower to keep the performance torchlit, let alone the extra bodies to transfer heavy paraffin soaked spare torches in the wake of the procession.

Secondly its a horrible job that we can never get anyone to volunteer to do. Everyone wants to be drumming, firebreathing, dancing or waving torches, not unglamourously pushing a dirty great unwieldy wheelbarrow through crowds of people.

Thirdly the band sounds a lot better playing in a tight circle where everyone can see the conductor and hear one another, than in an increasingly drawn out line that tends to happen when we parade. And it takes more torches to keep it illuminated.

And lastly it's very hard to navigate a path in the dark through all the groups of people who had camped down on the grass waiting for sunrise. As we move forward the crowd parts to reveal a family of sleeping infants and picnic blankets etc. It's a tough job and feels very intrusive.

The EH fire stewards are very accomodating in whatever our plans are.

Best Wishes, Jake Lewis, The Kings Drums

jake lewis
mail e-mail: jakelewis ATT blueyonder DOTT co DOTT uk

Spiritual Experience

18.07.2004 11:32

It is very difficult for me to understand the negative feeling behind the majority of these comments. I may not be a druid or even remotely related to whoever placed those beautiful standings stones where they now stand, but I this solstice changed my life for the better. Often in ceremonies like this, with such a wide range of people from a variety of different backgrounds, people attend for many different reasons. I still don't know what made me go halfway around the globe for solstice to hang out in the cold night air and stay up all night. I can say one thing though. I feel as though I got something amazingly wonderful out of it. Everytime I think of that night, I can still hear the drumming, chanting and feeling of being united with so many people from so many different places in one cause, to witness the sunrise and celebrate life. In a way I think I have to put this comment into context. People have been gathering at the standing stones for thousands of years to celebrate this same event. Perhaps the reasons and methods of celebrating have evolved over the years and perhaps not for the better, but it is an amazing feeling knowing that you are a part of that cycle. Yes, there was alot of partying going on and there was a huge mess left behind I am sure. This seems to happen at any and every party or celebration these days. It is important to keep in mind the fact that 21000 people came out to celebrate a time and a place together and watch the sunrise, to commemorate an age old celebration of an ancient people. This is an amazing and beautiful thing. It definately changed me for the better. I think the good definately out weighs the evil at this event. Sure, its not for everyone, but for me it was one of the most strange and wonderful nights of my life. I didn't drink or anything, I just celebrated life and accepted the people around me. The biggest thing I learned that night was not to judge the music and the people and the world around me, but to embrace it. I took that message home with me and am currently trying to change my way of viewing myself and the world to fit this frame. Sure there are things around us that need to change in order to make the world a better place. Rather than just examining these things because they effect me, from now on I am going to try and see the
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