Stonehenge damaged with chewing gum and graffiti during Winter Solstice.

It is not the 'hippies' (as they are generically termed) or pagans that are doing this, they are a popular scapegoat and I understand the issues that some created locally as I was there in the early 80s, and have been back over the past few years. The ones that are damaging the stones, climbing on them, writing on them, causing trouble etc are largely kids (I'm guessing 13 - 20 year olds) that have no interest in the monument, the history, the ceremony, or anything even remotely 'hippy' or pagan. It's large quantities of drunk kids basically, normal town kids, drunk and stoned on balloons, out their heads with no idea that they are in a protected national monument and a sacred space for some. I wouldn't recommend going to the solstice unless your idea of a night out is being trampled by drunks, vomited on, and intimidated with threats of violence. The stone circle at dawn on solstice back in the festival days was a celebration of life, it was chaotic but loose, and peaceful. Now it's packed too tightly, panic sets in, people lose it, there's fights, there's football chants and Wonderwall singalongs, it's like being on any generic High St at 1am on a weekend, drunks looking for something to happen.

There are still good people there, people who get it, you'll see them on the media coverage every year, there are lovely people who want to attend solstice at their 'church'. Those images we get every year show pagans and new age types but not the others, not the mobs of teenagers who only showed up as it's free and it's a 'party'.

I assume from the article the solution proposed will either be a fallow year(s), or paid ticketing. That's sad but I do agree that the event needs to become less popular as a 'night out' and rebranded as a celebration of tradition, or if you're that way inclined, a sacred space on a significant date.

It's very sad, I have a personal history and connection, but I won't be going back until the drunk party people are dissuaded. Having someone piss on your leg while half the people around you has their face buried into their smartphone looking at facebook and the other half are aggressively blind drunk at 3am on Salisbury Plain was never on my to-do list.

I hope they sort it out, even if it's not exactly how I would prefer it to be I hope they change this mess.

/r/unitedkingdom Thread Link - telegraph.co.uk