CROWDS have so far heeded pleas to stay away from Avebury for Solstice.

The tiny village in the centre of the stone circles has been more of less cordoned off to car parking, with villagers manning the barriers, and traffic cones preventing parking from around a mile around the ancient site.

Around 30 travellers vans are camped up on the Ridgeway byway above the village, where the partying has already started.

Some, like traveller Declan, have arrived in horse drawn wagons.

"I came up the A4," he said. "I'm hoping to have a relaxing time here. The horses are happy - they are grazing."

Other travellers like Buddah Tony arrived by lorry. He says his hopes for Solstice are to free Stone Henge for worship.

"I've got my own personal ceremonies that I do and if people wish to join me they may do that," he said.

The spiritual side of the longest day has also started, with an early morning ceremony involving pagan priest Gordon Rimes handing a lantern of light to the Avebury vicar, Rev Maria Shepherdson.

Avebury hosts a range of different spiritualities and druids are a diverse bunch, with different groves (groups) emphasising different principles.

Many share a love of nature, respect for rituals and ceremonies and a belief in a range of gods and goddesses. Avebury’s pagan community has reacted to the news by planning to video and stream their ceremonies online.

“Solstice is a very significant point in our religious experience. It is the peak of the sun, and Druids follow the sun,” said Avebury Druid Henk Vis.

“We wish to recognise that by calling the sun up, and we do this by the big stones... they turn pink at sunrise, and it is a very special moment, so we are planning to video that for people that can’t come this time.”

Gordon Rimes, a pagan priest, says he will also be filming a ceremony. “It’s an old ritual symbolising the change in the year,” he said.

“I will be charging a light spear, which symbolises capturing the Sun through out the longest day of the year.

“At sunset, we cover it up, and it gets unveiled again at Winter solstice in December, and the shortest day of the year, when we welcome the sun back in again.”

The National Trust has confirmed that neither Avebury nor its land across the Stonehenge landscape will be open for this year’s summer solstice.

It is asking visitors not to travel to the area, although many vans are currently parked up on the Ridgeway byway.

The celebrations which take place every midsummer, on or around June 21, attract thousands of people.

Sunrise will be broadcast live from Stone Henge.