Memory Of A Free Festival

Sam Knee

CICada Books By the time we got to Stonehenge…

Do anarchists have coffee tables? If so, this is a perfect addition to whatever else is on it; a superior scrapbook that also serves to answer the kids’ questions when they ask if you went to the second Windsor

Free Festival.

The title comes from David Bowie’s song about the free festival he organised and headlined in Beckenham in 1969 that deserves more coverage than it gets. But, like the free Hyde Park concerts around the same time, it had no political dimension that this book is keen to foster. There is also some blurring between free and commercial festivals, even though the latter were obviously run by evil capitalist scum, but they had better toilets and music. And for a while they attracted similar audiences.

Free festivals came into their own during the 70s, staged at prehistoric sites such as Glastonbury (free until 1981) and Stonehenge, with core countercultural values and endless sets by the Pink Fairies and

Hawkwind. Hippies and punks jostled along during the late 70s, before the anarchists moved in and deliberately goaded the authorities, who eventually responded with unexpected venom at 1985’s Battle Of The Beanfield near Stonehenge.

The photos, mostly taken by punters, give a genuine sense of what it was like to be there, rather than a colour magazine’s stylish interpretation. Which is bad news for the fashionistas.