Lifestyle Travel 23,000 Gather to Celebrate Summer Solstice at Stonehenge (PHOTOS) Police made nine arrests at the largely peaceful gathering, all drug-related By Alex Heigl Alex Heigl Alex Heigl is a former associate editor at PEOPLE. He left PEOPLE in 2017. People Editorial Guidelines Published on June 22, 2015 10:30AM EDT Photo: Niklas Halle'n/AFP/Getty The Summer Solstice is, for some cultures, a day of feasting and celebration – it’s the point of the year at which the sun stays in the sky the longest, and from here on out, the days start getting incrementally shorter. For others, it’s a great opportunity for Instagram posts and psychedelics. Whatever their motivations, almost 23,000 people showed up at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, England, to celebrate the solstice in a mostly peaceful fashion. ( Police made nine drug arrests.) Popular events at the site include yoga routines, drum circles and dance parties. A few couples used the opportunity to renew their vows. Stonehenge was built in three phases between 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C. Historians have not agreed on what its exact purpose was, but many speculate it had ritualistic uses for early Britons, and in modern times, pagan revivalists have migrated to the site for celebrations of their own. Spinal Tap would have been thrilled.