Revelers Leave Trash All Over Stonehenge
Tuesday June 23, 2009
The good news is that lots of people got to visit Stonehenge for the summer solstice this past weekend. The bad news is that they left the place covered in litter. Over 36,000 people came to the sacred site on Salisbury Plain for the annual celebration, and local Druids are not happy about the mess. One said, "It is nice to see a lot of people here because there is no better place to learn about our culture and history... But it is upsetting to see so much litter, and some people can be disrespectful."
There had been some controversy a few weeks back, regarding increased police presence. However, local authorities say the attendees were well behaved, with only two dozen arrests. Not bad at all for a crowd that size.
Anyway, the article doesn't indicate whether the trash left behind was due to a shortage of garbage bins, or just people being lazy. My guess would be that it's a combination of the two. Really, if you're attending a public festival like this and you have garbage, you should be responsible enough to take it with you when you go home if there aren't enough trash cans.
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There had been some controversy a few weeks back, regarding increased police presence. However, local authorities say the attendees were well behaved, with only two dozen arrests. Not bad at all for a crowd that size.
Anyway, the article doesn't indicate whether the trash left behind was due to a shortage of garbage bins, or just people being lazy. My guess would be that it's a combination of the two. Really, if you're attending a public festival like this and you have garbage, you should be responsible enough to take it with you when you go home if there aren't enough trash cans.
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Comments
Anyone who trashes a sacred site doesn’t have the right to call themselves Pagan, IMO. Sacred sites deserve respect, and garbage bags are very cheap.
I agree with Karen – it is really sad that people can’t treat places with respect. And they wonder why local authorities have barriers around this beautiful and ancient treasure – too many people without proper reverence for beauty and tradition! This isn’t Bonnaroo or something! It’s STONEHENGE!
I have been to Stonehenge and I can testify whoever are the caretakers don’t exactly prepare for the abundance of people. Not to say what they did was right but this is nothing new for the summer season and Stonehenge(and now the remains of Woodhenge). There were a few bins a good distance away since people are not allowed in certain areas of the site. There was also, when we went, more tourists and partiers than those who treasure the site as a part of our heritage. Friends that live near this area inform us that it gets worse each year and they have even had people in the past that attempt to take ‘remembrances’ with them. Sadly they will most likely shut off anyone from getting close to the place before long.
Like Karen said, garbage bags are cheap and easy to pack out. As for remembrances take a wide lens picture for heavens sakes. When my mother was there she brought me home copies of three beautiful wide lens photos she took just for me. She took one of those throw away cameras with the wide shots.
You know,
This type of behavior just makes me sick.
Stonehenge is a sacred site, and should be treated a such.
Its a shame that people obviously don’t have the respect that such a place is due, heck they obviously think it’s a landfill instead of an ancient and sacred site.
If people can’t have the dignity and respect to PICK UP THEIR TRASH, then they don’t deserve to be allowed to get within 1,000 feet of such a sacred site.
What a shame.
I wonder what their churches looks like.
Shortage of trash receptacles is NO EXCUSE. As a former rock climber, I would take along a garbage bag in my backpack so that I could save my garbage and also clean up behind others. (I didn’t have to do it often as most climbers, like good Pagans, leave the area better than they found it.) Whomever did this cannot be a true Pagan, simply someone looking for an Ozzfest. (No offense, Ozzy.)
I went to stonehenge for the first and last time for the summer solstice a few years back and volunteers were handing out bags for rubbish along with a map as you drove into the carpark so theres really no excuse.
Sadly i agree with the above comments. I expected the site and whole occasion to be treated with some reverence and respect but most people there were drunk or on drugs and just there to party. I was also insulted by some very drunk guy shouting at me “you have a pentangle(?) tattoo i bet you dont even know what its for” i’m not sure what a pentangle is but i do have a pentacle tattooed on my back.
The whole expirience was a let down for me and at the end of it instead of feeling any kind of happy spiritual feelings i just felt like crying at peoples complete lack of respect towards the site and each other. I guess it is a free country though so while the stones are open for everyone you cant dictate to people how to act.
I was very impressed when my local news (way down here in south western Australia)actually covered the summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge.
I was so excited but when i saw the footage of the “revellers” i thought it resembled a music festival which, as anyone who has been to one knows, leaves in its wake a ridiculous amount of rubbish.
But i thought to myself these people are here to recognize a pagan tradition maybe, just maybe this means they have a respect for our path and will respect this most sacred site.
After reading the above article i guess i was sadly mistaken.
I’m devastated!
Its dishonorable to THEM, and it is a lack of respect to the country and the Druids that hosts the visitors. I would have done what I could to pick up my own mess, and whatever else I could, and find some place to leave it, a trash bin somewhere along the way, if not, just place it in my own vehicle. Maybe more bins are a necessity, but its not that hard to pick up one’s own mess.
Maybe if there is an event there next year, they should charge a fee for garbage removal. Maybe
Tickets, including the clean-up fee?
You know, I’m not opposed to large crowds and wild revelry. But when it’s over, it’s only decent to clean up after yourselves. The only weak excuse I can think of was that people assumed there was going to be a clean-up crew of some kind, like at a concert venue. It seems like people were treating it as entertainment rather than sacred rite or worship. Sounds like genuine Pagans were just a tiny minority of the attendees. Certainly Pagans can be messy like anyone else, but if the mood was “public festival, come be entertained” rather than “Pagan celebration, come worship” then the respect that should have been inherent to the occasion was obviously missing.
How can anyone there leave trash behind??!! Take it with you and dispose of it at home. People like this give Pagans a bad name!
Jeannie, it gives everyone a bad name. I am a former Girl Scout, Boy Scout Mascot, and a current member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a common thread among all of these groups is something we repeat at every final court in the SCA “Leave the site cleaner than you found it.” The SCA has been congratulated, and gotten invites back to sites due to this policy. Why can’t all people live by this saying?
The sad thing is that, here in Britain at least, (I can’t speak for other countries as I don’t live there) whenever a lot of people gather, there’s a whole lot of litter left behind.
I went to Avebury (smaller but similar stone circle not far from Stonehenge) at the Solstice and the mess in the morning was unbelievable.
It’s the same on our beaches and other natural sites (I live by the sea and every summer we all end up clearing the beach after the tourists go home!)
I wish there was an answer, but it seems that visitors in this country (native and otherwise) have a ’someone else will deal with it’ attitude.
What is it like in other parts of the world? Does anyone else have a way of dealing with this?