POLICE are appealing for information about illegal raves after 2,000 revellers brought chaos to villages outside Swindon during the Easter weekend.

Partygoers from as far as Manchester arrived at the Hollows, off Ham Road, near Foxhill, on Saturday for the illegal festival, which ran from Saturday evening to early Sunday morning.

It is believed that the rave had been moved at short notice from a location in Bed-fordshire and had been expected to finish on Monday but pressure from police forced it to end a day early.

Jonathan Holland, who farms the land, says that he was left with little choice but to allow the rave to avoid damage to his property.

"I was told by the police that people were gathering at the farm on Saturday but that it was under control," he said.

"I was told that it would be better if I allowed the event to go ahead, otherwise there might be property damage from angry revellers.

"When I arrived up there on Sunday there were five times more people there than I had been led to believe and the mess they had left was extensive."

Mr Holland said that following the rave he remained at the site until 1am Monday continuing to turn away people who were still arriving for the event.

When he returned later in the morning he found a telescopic fork-lift had been burned out, crop damage and hundreds of black bags of rubbish.

Raves have been held on the land before but on a much smaller scale. "These people had run amok," said Mr Holland.

"They came in droves and droves this time. It is like nothing I have ever seen before."

Supt Richard Roland, from Wiltshire police said: "Although these events cause disturbance to people nearby because they are unlicensed, our concerns are also for the people attending them, particularly regarding the possibility of fire, crushes and drugs."

"When we were called, a small number of people were already on site. To move them would have required a significant number of officers and resources.

"We were quite stretched that day with officers dealing with the football and the search for Amanda Edwards."

"We are now getting into the rave season. This is just the first and I would appeal to the public for any information about possible raves in their area and also to land-owners who may have land vulnerable to such events to make it more secure."

Brenda Seeley, the landlady at the Shepherds' Rest pub in Foxhill, also had problems with the revellers.

She said: "On Saturday all day we had people popping in to find out where the rave was and that continued late into the night. They were banging on windows and doors to ask directions.

"After the rave on Sunday a whole load of cars turned up in the car park from the rave.

"People got out and started walking towards the Ridge-way and several people began using our car park as a public toilet. Not even dogs act the way some of these people did."

The rave comes three days after Wiltshire police, along with four other police forces in south west England launched Operation Hartley to gather intelligence on illegal festivals and stop them early so they do not disrupt the local community

It is not the first time illegal raves have caused problems.

Last year Wiltshire police stopped several similar events from going ahead at Roundway Hill, near Devizes, and at Avebury.

But about 800 partygoers set up camp in Savernake Forest in May last year.

The police were criticised for not breaking it up and dozens of complaints were made by residents whose sleep was shattered by the music from the rave.