Record turnout expected for Stonehenge Summer Solstice party » Communities » 24dash.com

Thousands of people were making their way to Stonehenge today for a predicted record turnout at this year's Summer Solstice party.

The solstice annually attracts an eclectic mix - Druids, hippies, sun worshippers and those simply curious to experience dawn breaking at the ancient stone circle on the longest day of the year.

Some dance all night, some relax with an ale or three, while others have been known to frolic naked as the sun edges above the horizon at 4.58am on June 21.

A spokeswoman for English Heritage, which runs the 5,000-year-old site on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, said: "Because this year's solstice falls on a Friday night/Saturday morning, we are expecting more people. People will not have to take a day off to come this year, which is why we're expecting record numbers.

"We hope there will be up to 25,000 but we will not know until tomorrow. The weather forecast is not the best and if it's grey and cloudy, the sunrise is less spectacular."

She said 22,000 came last year but about 25,000 attended three years ago.

Weather forecasts for tomorrow morning by MeteoGroup UK, the weather forecasting division of the Press Association, were bleak.

"It's going to be pretty cloudy with a chance of some rain. I think they'll be lucky to get a decent sunrise," said a spokesman.

At the complex of ancient stones in Avebury, 25 miles north of Stonehenge, another all-night Summer Solstice party takes place.

On a smaller scale, the Avebury festivities are said to be lower-key and more "chilled out".

A spokeswoman for the Druid Network said: "The Summer Solstice is a way of attuning ourselves back into the cycles of nature, connecting with the land and the turning of the seasonal tides."