APPLEBY Horse Fair has got underway as hundreds of travellers make way to the annual event.
Visitors from the Gyspy, Roma and Travelling community arrived in huge numbers in Cumbria for the fair's first full day.
Some owners rose their horses into the River Eden for a dip as part of an Appleby tradition.
The 250-year-old fair's tradition says people take their horses into the river for a wash.
Traffic jams snaked towards up the fair with long delays into the The Sands village.
Around 40,000 people are due at the fair over the next next seven days.
GYPSY GATHERING
Travellers rode traditional horse and bow top carts along country roads towards the site.
Last year's fair was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic, but huge crowds have descended on the area this year.
It is the biggest traditional Gypsy fair in Europe and attracts around 10,000 Gypsies and 10,000 Travellers .
Some 10,000 caravans and 30,000 visitors also gathered for the week-long festival, which is usually held in June.
Families from all over the country have made their way towards the fair.
You forget how precious normality is. This fair is the beginning of normality
Head Gypsy Billy Welch told CumbriaLive the horse fair is "a great opportunity to catch up…we've not seen each other in two years".
He said: "You forget how precious normality is. This fair is the beginning of normality."
But he said one of the fields people where normally camped had been sprayed with cow manure and sealed off with boulders, which he branded "disgusting and disgraceful".
Police were called after locals claimed threats were made against them by travellers attending the fair.
Travellers were forced to set up camp at Upper Eden Rugby Club after their previous camp was sprayed with manure and cordoned off by boulders.
Rob Malloy, RSPCA officer, said they had a team of about 30 to make sure any animals were safe.
He said: "In terms of horses that is making sure people don't overuse them, that occasionally happens."
The fair originated in the 1770s on Gallows Hill where sheep, cattle and horse dealers went to sell their stock.
By the 1900s it had evolved into an event for Gypsies and Travellers.
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