Stonehenge Solstice Celebration 2003: News just in ……!

PRESS RELEASE

December 2002

Stonehenge Solstice Celebration 2003

The Stonehenge Solstice Celebration Co Ltd has been set up to administer a legal, not-for-profit celebration of life, love and unity over the Summer Solstice period in 2003.

This celebration is designed to complement the existing ‘Managed Open Access’ at Stonehenge itself, which has been running successfully for three years. Proposals for a celebration, at some distance from Stonehenge, have repeatedly been encouraged at meetings this year by both the Police and English Heritage, to fulfil the need and desire for a Midsummer celebration in the community at large.

It is proposed that the celebration will last for a week, and will be free at the point of entry, although a charge per vehicle will be levied for parking, to assist the sustainability of the project. It will be community-based and will operate to the highest possible ecological standards. We are looking at alternative energy sources, full recycling, and a minimal use of plastics on site.

‘Be the change that you want to see in this world’ is our guiding principle, to quote Mahatma Gandhi.

It is our goal to:

– integrate the spirit of community with a rich mixture of culture, music, art, spiritual values, healing, ecology and education

– bridge the gap between the people and the authorities across the whole generational, cultural and ethnic spectrum

– provide a platform for mutual respect and the development of communication skills

– restore peace and harmony to our world through the enrichment of all our lives

We will be inviting applications from a wide range of high-quality, organic food vendors and other stall-holders. Artists, performers and teachers everywhere are encouraged to participate, as well as representatives of charities and other organizations committed to making the world a better place. We intend to involve the local community as fully as possible, and to create an event that will be family-friendly. All are welcomed who come in peace.

This initial press release is intended to communicate the current status of the project and to aid the search for a suitable venue for the celebration, so that the myriad groups interested in its manifestation can begin a major fund-raising operation, as well as preparing and submitting the necessary permit applications.

The proposed Stonehenge Solstice Celebration is unlike anything that has ever been done before. We anticipate that fundraising will come from the unlikeliest sources, people that none of us may yet know who have also been carrying the prospect of a Stonehenge Solstice Celebration in their hearts for all these years. For the last three decades in particular, people from all walks of life have celebrated Stonehenge and carried its significance into social, spiritual and political arenas of extraordinary diversity.

To conclude, this celebration, like ‘Managed Open Access’, is about a particular time and place – Stonehenge and the Summer Solstice. Midsummer celebrations, centred on the solstice, have a long and illustrious history. The Summer Solstice is the centrepiece of a solar year that was of the utmost importance to the builders of Stonehenge, who raised their sarsen temple towards it over 4,000 years ago, in a landscape that has been sacred for 10,000 years. We don’t know what they did there, but we can infer that the celebrations focused on an endlessly repeating seasonal cycle that is in stark contrast to the modern world of linear time and the wanton exploitation of nature. Stonehenge takes us back in time to that place, and renews that promise every Midsummer.

And it’s worth noting that we’re also reviving a celebration that has manifested itself in various forms at other times. Throughout recorded history, fire festivals and symbolic representations of the turning of the solar year, including burning wheels and bonfires, were widespread at the Summer Solstice, and there are records of Midsummer celebrations taking place at Stonehenge at various times from the 13th to the 19th centuries, long before the Druids, pagans or any of us turned up, and long before the free festival.

We are part of a bigger picture.