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Solstice celebration leaves a sour taste
From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Tuesday 25th Jun 2002.
AVEBURY villagers today reflected on a weekend invasion by travellers and called for steps to be taken to prevent a repeat.
The last of the travellers, who descended on the village in battered vans, buses and converted ambulances, were leaving the area today many of them for this weekend's Glastonbury Festival.
Many had turned up for Friday's solstice celebrations and others had arrived en route from Stonehenge, creating an impromptu campsite on a car park owned by the National Trust.
On Saturday police were so concerned at the numbers converging on Avebury that they set up road blocks at Beckhampton and advised other motorists using the Devizes-Swindon road to seek alternative routes.
Villagers complained that they were kept awake by incessant drumming from the travellers and non-stop wailing.
One villager, who asked not to be named, said: "It was all good natured but it is not really what Avebury is about. If the authorities don't do something now to nip it in the bud then it will become as bad as the Stonehenge festivals used to be."
Brian Ashley, who owns Henge Shop in Avebury selling books and gifts to tourists, said the weekend takings were the worst in the 18 years he has been running the business.
Mr Ashley said: "Our worry is that it is going to grow and become like Stonehenge. They filled up all the car parks and roads into the village. Any tourists who managed to struggle through saw all these bodies lying around and the drunkenness. Other visitors did feel intimidated."
At the village post office and stores, Dick Stannard said his till never stopped ringing all weekend as the solstice celebrants bought food and supplies.
He said: "We were very busy but I do think the villagers get fed up with it."
It was a case of standing room only inside the village's only pub, the Red Lion, for 48 hours, until the travellers began packing up their vans and buses and drifting away.
But the village's most famous resident, broadcaster Sir Ludovic Kennedy, said he was not concerned about the invasion.
Sir Ludovic said he and his wife, the former ballet dancer Moira Shearer, had not been affected at all by the solstice invasion. "It made no difference to us," he said.
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