Festival to celebrate the mystery of crop circles

Nearly 25 years after the largest and most complex crop circle ever recorded was discovered, they still remain a mystery and fascination to many.

The "Galaxy" crop circle appeared at Milk Hill in 2001. Since then, data has shown Wiltshire to be the county with the most crop circles in England.

To celebrate the anniversary, a Circle Festival takes place from 17-19 July in Honeystreet, with talks and exhibitions about the crop circles.

Monique Klinkenbergh, founder of the crop circle visitor centre, which is hosting the event, said: "There's still this mystery. There's no final answer yet. People love a mystery but also they love beautiful crop circles."

Klinkenbergh moved from the Netherlands to Wiltshire because of the crop circles.

"It spoke to me and I went to Wiltshire to find out more," she said.

She founded the crop circle visitor centre and says people come from all over the world to see it.

"They want to know all about crop circles. What creates them. We can't give them the final answers," Klinkenbergh said.

"We have various theories, there's Stonehenge, Avebury, it's a very ancient landscape. We don't have an answer for Stonehenge, there's so many unanswered questions.

"There are man-made ones but there's parts we can't explain. The ones that happen in a few minutes even seconds, we have witnesses of that, we just can't explain."

Klinkenbergh remembers the famous Galaxy crop circle from 2001.

She said: "At that time, everyone thought crop circles were man-made and then over night, this amazing galaxy crop circle arrived which we still can't explain.

"People say they've done it but we still can't explain it - maybe they have supernatural powers."

Tim Carson, a farmer in Pewsey Vale, was one of the first people to enter the Galaxy crop circle.

"There was mist and you couldn't see the hills from down in the valley," he said.

"When I went in there, I was leaving footprints - but there weren't any footprints I could see in there. Just makes you wonder how it was done.

"It's not until you see the aerial picture, I was on the ground and had no idea how big it was."

Carson said at the start, he would let people visit the circles that appeared on his land, charging £1.

However, he now flattens them after taking an aerial picture because some people were destroying his crops.

"There was a minority who spoiled it for the rest," Carson said.

Chris Swanton, another farmer in Pewsey Vale, said he enjoyed the circles from an artistic perspective but it was expensive from a farmer's point of view.

"We spend a lot of money growing these crops, the actual margin of what we get back is shrinking," he said.

"Any damage is bad news for us. It's a form of vandalism in a way.

"It's not just a financial thing, it's respect. We spend a lot of time out here, it's a bit disingenuous to come and trample it down."

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