Around 23,000 people mark summer solstice of 2015 at Britain’s Stonehenge

The summer solstice is observed between June 20 and June 22 every year. This year the world witnessed the event on Sunday, June 21. Tens of thousands of people flocked in Stonehenge early on Sunday morning to mark this special day of the year.

Fresh reports suggest that around 23,000 people attended the Wiltshire-based Neolithic site. The adjacent Avebury stone circle, on the other hand, was visited by a group of pagans and hippies. The number of attendees at this year’s event was much less that the anticipated 30,000. The number of people descending in this part of the world was also much more in 2014; last year, an estimated 36,000 people gathered at the place to see the sun rise on the year’s longest day.

However, the good news is that in spite of a cloud cover across the area, all attendees managed to have a glimpse of the sun when it came over the sky at 4.52am.

summer-solstice-2015

Last year’s event at Stonehenge was marked by multiple arrests. When asked about this year’s arrests, police said that the number is much lower for the year 2015. A total of 9 people have been held at Stonehenge for drug offenses. In Avebury, on the other hand, a handful of people got cautioned by the police for possessing Class A drugs, but no arrests were made.

Gavin Williams, the Wiltshire Police Superintendent, the man in charge of the policing operations, said that this year’s solstice has been a big success. According to him, people flocking at Stonehenge celebrated in a friendly and positive manner as they were waiting for the sun to rise. Williams added that this year’s crowd was lucky to see the sun appearing over the sky before it eventually disappeared behind the low cloud.

http://www.thehoopsnews.com/2015/06/21/6090/mass-extinction-6-due-to-humans-is-underway/

Success of such events depends primarily on the behavior of people attending. According to people in charge of the 2015 meet at Stonehenge, this year the summer solstice has been celebrated keeping the spirit of the event in mind.

For those who don’t know: other than being a site attended every year by thousands of people on the first day of the summer solstice, Stonehenge is also known for being a significant religious site for the Britons 4,000 years back.