Veterans of the circuit blame the destruction on “ravers,” dance fanatics who like earsplitting technopop and the “love drug” Ecstasy. In Castlemorton, the travelers tried in vain to get the ravers to dig latrines and turn down the music. “They don’t have to live on the road, so they muck everything up and go home to their posh houses, leaving us to be blamed,” says Steve, who sells vegetable curry at the fezzies. Police and landowners say the ravers, have created unprecedented problems of noise and drug dealing. “Your average hippie is a gentle dropout with very little malice,” says Welsh farmer Julian Salmon, head of a regional landowners association. “But the ravers are a new thing. They come with sound equipment and a thug element that is deeply frightening.”
The new strains threaten years of peaceful coexistence between cops and “crusties,” as the ravers call the travelers. The last serious clash involving the travelers came in 1985, when authorities broke up a banned summer-solstice celebration near Stonehenge. “The Battle of the Beanfield” outraged many Britishers and provoked criticism of the police. “People were a lot nicer to us for a while after that,” says Phil, a gypsy camped with hundreds of travelers and their dogs, geese and goats along highway A46 in Britain’s West Country. “Now they want to squash us again-do another Beanfield on us. We’re under siege.”
Indeed, cops were keeping close watch on the encampment; a police in will spread the word when caravans move so they can be prevented from gathering. Farmers have heaped manure on open land, prepared to spread it at the first signs of a festival. Another run-in seems inevitable, but authorities are reluctant to legalize the fezzies. The freewheeling travelers wouldn’t accept supervision, some say. And legitimizing the lifestyle might encourage more people to join. Unemployment, tight housing and readily available welfare checks already help sustain the subculture. “It’s my way of life and my daughter’s because she was born on the road,” says Rose, 27, who has lived in transit for nearly 10 years. “I love it, and I will fight for my right to die on the road. “Watch out, ravers.
