‘I noticed lady breastfeeding gang in UK’s weirdest city – then issues bought violent’

For many years, Glastonbury has been synonymous with an alternative lifestyle scene which has seen it gain a reputation as the “UK’s weirdest town”.

But, according to one local, some members of the Somerset town’s nomadic “van-dweller” community are taking Glastonbury’s reputation for offbeat behaviour to bizarre extremes.

Podcaster Joe Fish spoke to locals and van lifers in a bid to discover the truth behind the tensions behind Glastonbury’s two communities. One woman he spoke to told a harrowing tale that began with public nudity and ended in violent assault.

Housing charity Crisis reckons more than 18,000 people in England alone are living in vehicles or tents. With no official figures, experts say numbers could be even higher. While Bristol is seen as the heart of this trend, council officials from Glastonbury say they are seeing “20 to 30 times more van-dwelling households than Bristol.”

And with these van-dwelling households come significant problems, including waste disposal, substance abuse and, in many cases, anti-social behaviour. One Glastonbury local Joe spoke to told she was attacked in t6he street by another woman who she believes was a so-called “van lifer.”

She recalled: “I couldn’t believe what this girl was doing. I opened the front door, and she was standing at a craft shop across the road. She had her breasts out of her bra and she was giving local boys who were circled around her either a group breastfeeding or a biology lesson.”

Trying to intervene turned out to have violent consequences. She continued: “I approached the situation, and the next thing I know she was kicking me around the ground like a football.”

The woman claimed there was an issue with drinking and drug use in the region.

Joe explains that the explosion of people living in caravans, especially in the south-west of England, has been driven by the national homelessness crisis. He spoke to two men who had migrated through over 50 towns in the past year, starting in Manchester and ending up in Glastonbury, “just to find somewhere to call home.”

“We’ve had some horrible times,” one of them said, adding that they found some sort of security in one of Glastonbury’s sprawling caravan encampments. But until the locals and newcomers can find some way to live together, the friction will only continue.