Market town besieged by travellers: School warns pupils not to walk alone

Market town besieged by travellers: School warns pupils not to walk alone
Market town besieged by travellers: School warns pupils not to walk alone

Schoolchildren in a sedate market town were today urged not to walk alone for their own safety and businesses shut down fearing they will be looted or attacked by travellers attending a Gypsy evangelical Christian festival.

Residents in Oakham, said the area is in a 'state of panic' following anti-social behaviour, assaults, high-speed drag-racing reminiscent of the the Mad Max movies and claims gangs of men were 'driving around the villages looking for things they can take'. 

Several of Rutland's supermarkets closed early yesterday amid claims of looting and toilets being left unusable for customers, while witnesses said maskless youths terrorised staff and diners in the local McDonald's and went behind the counter to grab meals and hurl food and drink. 

The trouble started on Saturday when around 1,500 travellers descended on the Rutland Showground for the Pentecostal Gypsy-led Christian event, called the festival of Light and Life - but organisers admit 'a lot of non-Christians have attended'. 

The event, run for the growing number of Pentecostal Christian travellers in the UK, ends on Thursday. Its organisers deny there have been major problems and have invited critics in for a 'cup of tea and a sandwich' - but many people in Oakham want it 'shut down' and believe police are too frightened to do it because it involves travellers and religion. 

Local Tory MP Alicia Kearns today said 'there were more unacceptable disturbances and further intimidation of our community' as locals complained to police about assaults and nightly drag-racing on the ring road with no intervention from officers. 

And today Catmose Primary School in the town wrote to parents about 'social order incidents' that 'will inevitably worry families about the safety of children coming to and from school'. Head of School Kelly Jackson said: 'We would advise that your child does not walk on their own, they should be in small groups and have mobile phones with them. If they encounter difficulties, they should contact the police for support'.

Multiple locals have claimed online that the team running the Rutland Showground [RS] were duped and allegedly told it would only involve a small number of people - but instead hundreds of caravans turned up and a giant circus tent was pitched. 

MailOnline has asked RS if they had expected an event of this size and to explain why the Life and Light festival had been sanctioned at the Rutland Showground when the forthcoming Festival of Food and Farming, beloved by locals, has been cancelled due to the pandemic.

Covid rules allow groups of up to 30 to worship together outside, but footage from the festival shows hundreds together singing hymns together and dancing to a band at services at a time when weddings are limited to 30 people and couples face a £10,000 fine if they flout social-​distancing measures and face masks. 

It came weeks after large groups of travellers descended on Cumbria for the Appleby Horse Fair - despite it being postponed over Covid - and the case of 12 caravans who took over a park in the affluent area of Kew Gardens, west London, but fled hours before an eviction notice could be served. 

The trouble started on Saturday when around 1,500 travellers descended on the Rutland Showground for the Pentecostal Gypsy-led Christian event, called the festival of Light and Life - but organisers admit 'a lot of non-Christians have attended' the event that has its own giant tent (left of picture)

The trouble started on Saturday when around 1,500 travellers descended on the Rutland Showground for the Pentecostal Gypsy-led Christian event, called the festival of Light and Life - but organisers admit 'a lot of non-Christians have attended' the event that has its own giant tent (left of picture)

The scene inside the big tent at a traveller Pentecostal Christian festival locals say flouts covid regulations and should be shut down

The scene inside the big tent at a traveller Pentecostal Christian festival locals say flouts covid regulations and should be shut down

Festival goers pray and sing hymns with a live band during the event that has caused consternation locally

Festival goers pray and sing hymns with a live band during the event that has caused consternation locally

Festival goers pray and sing hymns with a live band during the event that has caused consternation locally

The travelling community has moved towards evangelical Christianity and away from Catholicism in recent years

The travelling community has moved towards evangelical Christianity and away from Catholicism in recent years

The event, run for the growing number of Pentecostal Christian travellers in the UK, ends on Thursday. Its organisers deny there has been major problems and have invited critics in for a 'cup of tea and a sandwich'.

Locals say they have been too scared to go out and businesses have refused to open because of claims of looting and intimidation

Locals say they have been too scared to go out and businesses have refused to open because of claims of looting and intimidation 

Local Tory MP Alicia Kearns today said 'there were more unacceptable disturbances and further intimidation of our community' as locals complained to police about assaults and nightly drag-racing on the ring road with no intervention from officers

Local Tory MP Alicia Kearns today said 'there were more unacceptable disturbances and further intimidation of our community' as locals complained to police about assaults and nightly drag-racing on the ring road with no intervention from officers 

Business owners in the town are too scared to open and reported CCTV feeds of their premises showed people trying doors after hours, while one man claimed gangs of men were 'driving around the villages looking for things they can take'.   

Catmose Primary School has written to parents urging them not to let children walk alone while the travellers are in town

Catmose Primary School has written to parents urging them not to let children walk alone while the travellers are in town

Locals say the sedate market town in the UK's smallest county was turned into a post-apocalyptic 'scene out of Mad Max' after some attendees of the Gypsy Christian festival ran amok. 

Locals have also criticised what they perceived to be a lack of a serious police presence in the town as the festival continued before a number of arrests were made last night.  

Pubs and restaurants were forced to close early, McDonalds workers were reduced to tears by food fights and anti-social behaviour while 4X4s were seen drag racing on the town bypass meaning some people in Oakham have been too scared to leave their homes.  

But a traveller at the centre of the event, who asked to remain anonymous, has denied there was chaos in Rutland over the weekend, insisting it was 'nice and peaceful on the field' and hinted that any criticism may be stoked by anti-traveller sentiment.

He told the BBC: 'We are inviting the locals to come down and have a look for themselves, listen to what it's all about and come have a cup of tea and a sandwich any time. Obviously there has been the odd disturbance but it is a minority and they are nothing to do with the organisation. With us being a gypsy and traveller organisation it always comes with the stigma of us causing trouble, but we are just preaching the gospel.' 

How millions of travellers (including Tyson Fury) have abandoned Catholicism for the evangelical Christianity at the heart of Oakham religious festival  

Travellers have abandoned their traditional Catholic faith in huge numbers for evangelical Christianity.

The Pentecostal movement, which is now Gypsy-led in the UK, has seen an explosion in numbers in the past 20 to 30 years.

Among the newer followers is celebrated heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury (pictured last week), who became a born-again Christian after his  uncle Ernest became a Pentecostal preacher in Congleton, Cheshire.

The move towards evangelical Christianity by travellers has become the subject of university studies, as academics try to work out why it has happened.

Some estimate that a third of Europe's 12million travellers have now changed to this form of Christianity.

In her recent e-book, journalist Katharine Quarmby said on the subject: 'In a reversal of roles, it is the Romani people who see themselves as the saved, the preachers of truth, who want to heal a world they see as broken by lack of faith, in a Europe where our politicians are judged to have lost much of their moral authority.' 

Yvonne Macnamara, chief executive of the Traveller Movement, told the Guardian: 'It's a comfort blanket and within these communities it's also a way of coping with a lifestyle that is constantly under attack and almost completely eroded.

'When you've been such an excluded community, then religion can provide a form of kinship, direction and strength. That's one reason so many in the community have such a profound faith'.

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However, locals say any criticism is well-founded, and many

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