SALISBURY PLAIN (England), June 21: About 30,000 people gathered in the rain by the mysterious standing stones of England’s Stonehenge on Saturday to mark the summer solstice, as dawn broke on the longest day of the year.

At exactly 4:58am (0358 GMT), the hotchpotch of druids, hippies and the merely curious cheered as the first glimpse of sunrise was detected through the rain clouds.

Peter Rawcliffe, 26, cycled more than 80km from his home in Oxford to Salisbury Plain. “Most of the year, I go about my business designing toys, but summer solstice brings out the hippie in me.”

English Heritage, the body that maintains the 5,000-year-old site, said about 30,000 people attended this year.—AFP