Groups divided over sunrise invasion

The sight of several hundred police officers and Chubb security guards battling with a 500-strong group of sit-down protestors at 3.30am on midsummer's mornnig upstaged the relaxed nature of the millennium's final solstice. Only hours earlier fire-jugglers, guitar-players and chatting crowds mingled with police officers from Wiltshire Constabulary indicating that the policy of lifting a ten-year exclusion zone was proving successful. Until some members of the crowd decided to "bumrush" the site, the only attempts to get close to the stones had been made by a handful of people who were all apprehended by security guards and escorted off the premises.

Until the mid-morning invasion there had been a calm atmosphere with about 1,000 people making their way by foot along the mile and half road which had been closed to traffic. This was an historic event. Wiltshire Police had lifted the four-mile exclusion zone for the first time in over a decade following a House of Lords ruling which overturned the ban in March 1999.

At the junction of the A360, and a slip road which joins the ancient monument to the outside world, police officers were enforcing the no-car policy. Luca, a motorbike tourist who had ridden from Milan in Northern Italy to see the site, was relaxing next to the roadblock. Nearby, a girl with dyed dreadlocks sang to herself in the evening sun.

At the site itself the early evening was being celebrated by the crowds in a multitude of ways. A group of students from Brighton ate delicacies from a picnic hamper and toasted the beginning of a "glorious summer" with glasses of red wine. "I liked the fact that everybody had to walk here" said a duvet-wrapped woman as she munched on a cracker and pate. "It's really mellowed people out - got rid of all the driving stress".

Kreb Dragonrider, the 41-year-old Arch Druid of the South Downs Dragon Order, was looking forward to the event and planned to mark the sunrise with a ceremony 200 metres from the site. "I'll be standing in the National Trust field to the North of Stonehenge which is in the sunline opposite the Heel stones . . . this is a very important day because it has important implications for crop growth and fertility".

Further along the road "Gabs", fresh from the beaches of Goa and wearing shades in the evening sun, explained that he had returned to the UK especially for the Solstice. Annoyed by the fact that people without tickets had been exlcuded from within the site itself he vowed to penetrate the inner circle: "These (stones) belong to the people it's not fair that we can't get to them - mark my words though, when the sun comes up I'll be on top of the stones to greet it".

With the exception of the decision by Wiltshire police to force several travellers' to move their vehicles out of the English Heritage site car park the early evening passed without incident. "We are simply asking people to leave who have parked without permission on the English Heritage site" said a police officer as the convoy was escorted towards the A303.

As the sun dropped the temperature plummeted with it. People started making fires, picking up guitars and talking about the 1985 "Battle of the Beanfield" in which Wiltshire police and travellers clashed (several independent eye-witnesses including an ITN TV journalist verified police brutality).

As darkness fell increasing calls for an invasion of the site were heard and the crowd was divided between those who were content to stay around the camp fires while others agitated to 'liberate' the stones. The arrival of a glimmering Daimler at about 11.30pm, carrying the chief of Wiltshire Constabulary, signalled that the atmosphere was changing. "That's the boss" a policeman explained while guarding the entrance to the Stonehenge visitor centre "and that's a mobile sensitive detention unit" he said pointing at a large white truck which followed behind the limousine.

The early hours contiued to be filled with acoustic music, fire, smoke and tall tales - an eclectic band of solstice-goers had gathered. Two teenage German tourists stood by the fire sipping bottles of Sainsbury's lager and looking bemused. A couple from Derbyshire, wearing turtle-necks and Barber jackets, mingled with the crowd. Any talk of dissent was a mere distraction from the warmth and atmosphere of the fire side at this stage.

At about 2.30am a group of people had successfully forced down the flimsy 6-foot high perimeter fence. A cheer went up and provided the impetus needed for the crowd to charge. The suddeness caught everyone off guard, including the police, who were outnumbered by the people streaming into the site.

Within minutes the whole inner circle had been turned into an impromptu party venue with scores of people pouring over the stones while some even managed to scale the 20-foot high 5,000 year old monuments. People danced to the sounds of bongos and a saxophone while a woman stripped off her clothes and threw her hands into the air shouting "liberation".

The couple from Deryshire were holding hands and touching a stone, nearby an Asian man chanted in Sanskrit and paced in front of a vast slab, Arthur Pendragon continued to bellow to his devotees: "We'll have a druid ceremony - I can do it . We're just waiting for it to happen at dawn". Meanwhile, another druid called Jez, who had walked from Brighton, pleaded with the crowd to make way for the 100 ticket-holding people who had been granted official access to the stones. "This is everyone's solstice!" he shouted. Jezs' pleas went unheeded - people continued to stagger around the sacred inner circle dropping empty cans and cheering at random. "This is an important day" said a man as he crouched beneath a crevice in the stones and lit candles whilst mumbling a prayer. "But I don't think everyone here appreciates exactly how special it is".

By 3.30am a ring of police surrounded the stone circle and began closing in on those inside. Parents with children, druids in ceremonial robes, a man on a horse and hundreds of people were then removed by police and security guards with riot police and horse-mounted officers providing reinforcements. By the end of the police operation a group of about 500 people were left on the road, sealed off from the stones by a line of police.

Around the back of the site more people had begun to re-form and within minutes of the opening stages of the sunrise about 150 people had converged on the stones. Brigitte Stanovick, a 21-year-old student from the US, had journeyed down from London for the day after reading about the solstice during an Astronomy course. "I didn't think I'd get this close - I'm glad the police are here, it's a monument and it has to be protected".

When the sun finally made its entrance onto the centre stage a huge cheer rose from the exhausted crowd. Yet, after the euphoria there was a feeling of disappoinment for many in the audience. "It shouldn't have been like this - these people have been excluding other groups themselves" said a man who had come from Birmingham for the event.

In the field across the road Dragonrider began his humble ceremony. In spite of feeling saddened by the anarchy which had unfolded on a sacred druid site he continued with his ritual. Less than a stone's throw away "Gabs" stood atop the key trilithon arch stone and punched his fist in the air - trumpetting his personal achievement yet seemingly unaware of the splits which threaten to widen as a result of the midsummer night's madness.