Free festival
Encyclopedia
Free festivals are a combination of music, arts and cultural activities for which, often, no admission is charged, but involvement is preferred. They are identifiable by being multi-day events connected by a camping community without centralised control. The Free festival movement being the associated pioneering movement starting in UK during the 1970s. The first truly free festival was the 1972 to 1974 Windsor Free Festival
, squatted on Royal land. The 'organisation' was mostly Ubi Dwyer
distributing thousands of leaflets and asking people, and bands, to bring their own equipment and create their own environment - Bring what you expect to find.
"Free festivals are practical demonstrations of what society could be like all the time: miniature utopia's of joy and communal awareness rising for a few days from a grey morass of mundane, inhibited, paranoid and repressive everyday existence…The most lively [young people] escape geographically and physically to the ‘Never Never Land’ of a free festival where they become citizens, indeed rulers, in a new reality." Anonymous leaflet from 1980, quoted in George McKay’s Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance Since the Sixties.
Windsor Free Festival
The Windsor Free Festival was a British Free Festival held in Windsor Great Park from 1972 to 1974. Organised by some London commune dwellers, notably Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle, it was in many ways the forerunner of the Stonehenge Free Festival, particularly in the brutality of its final suppression...
, squatted on Royal land. The 'organisation' was mostly Ubi Dwyer
Ubi Dwyer
Bill 'Ubi' Dwyer or William Ubique Dwyer was an anarchist activist in New Zealand, Australia, England and his native Ireland best known as the originator and principal organiser of the Windsor Free Festival....
distributing thousands of leaflets and asking people, and bands, to bring their own equipment and create their own environment - Bring what you expect to find.
"Free festivals are practical demonstrations of what society could be like all the time: miniature utopia's of joy and communal awareness rising for a few days from a grey morass of mundane, inhibited, paranoid and repressive everyday existence…The most lively [young people] escape geographically and physically to the ‘Never Never Land’ of a free festival where they become citizens, indeed rulers, in a new reality." Anonymous leaflet from 1980, quoted in George McKay’s Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance Since the Sixties.
Historical
- Windsor Free FestivalWindsor Free FestivalThe Windsor Free Festival was a British Free Festival held in Windsor Great Park from 1972 to 1974. Organised by some London commune dwellers, notably Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle, it was in many ways the forerunner of the Stonehenge Free Festival, particularly in the brutality of its final suppression...
, 1972 to 1974 and People's Free Festivals at WatchfieldWatchfieldWatchfield is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse, about southeast of Highworth in neighbouring Wiltshire. Watchfield is about north of the village of Shrivenham. Both villages used to be on the main road between Oxford and Swindon, which is now the A420 road...
1975, SeasalterSeasalterSeasalter is a village in the Canterbury District of Kent, England. It is located by the sea on the north coast of Kent, between the towns of Whitstable and Faversham, facing the Isle of Sheppey across the estuary of the River Swale...
1976 and Caesar's Camp 1978 - Stonehenge Free FestivalStonehenge Free FestivalThe Stonehenge Free Festival was a British free festival from 1972 to 1984 held at Stonehenge in England during the month of June, and culminating on the summer solstice on June 21. The festival was a celebration of various alternative cultures...
, 1972 to 1984 - Elephant FayreElephant fayreThe Elephant Fayre was held in the stately home of Port Eliot, St Germans, fayre" in every sense of the word, it featured a host of different types of performances, media, experimental theatre and rock, punk, folk and reggae music...
, 1981–86 - Castlemorton Common FestivalCastlemorton Common FestivalThe Castlemorton Common Festival was a week-long free festival and rave held in the Malvern Hills near Malvern, Worcestershire, England in 1992....
, 1992
Contemporary
- CzechTekCzechTekthumb|Cztk00CzechTek was an annual teknival normally held on the weekend at the end of July in the Czech Republic. It attracted thousands of free tekno dancers from several European countries...
- Leamington Spa Peace Festival
- Dragon FestivalDragon FestivalThe Dragon Festival is a Spanish free festival which ran from 1997 to 2009, held at Los Cigarrones on the riverbed of the Rio Guadalfeo, 2 km to the south of Órgiva, Spain, during the month of March, and culminating on the weekend nearest the Spring Equinox...
- Przystanek WoodstockPrzystanek WoodstockPrzystanek Woodstock is an annual free rock music festival in Poland, inspired by and named for the Woodstock Festival, that has taken place since 1995...
See also
- Free partyFree partyA free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the free festival movement. It typically involves a sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night until the time when the organisers decide to go home. A free party can be composed of just one...
- New age travellersNew age travellersNew Age Travellers are groups of people who often espouse New Age or hippie beliefs and travel between music festivals and fairs in order to live in a community with others who hold similar beliefs. Their transport and homes consist of vans, lorries, buses, narrowboats and caravans converted into...
- Alternative society
- TeknivalTeknivalTeknivals are large free parties which take place worldwide. They take place most often in Europe and are often illegal under various national or regional laws. They vary in size from dozens to thousands of people, depending on factors such as accessibility, reputation, weather, and law enforcement...
- Free Edinburgh Fringe FestivalFree Edinburgh Fringe FestivalThe Free Festival is an organisation that promotes free shows of all genres at the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Free Festival venues are commonly independently run bars and nightclubs which create performance spaces in their premises for the duration of the Fringe Festival...
- Free FringeFree FringeThe Free Fringe is an organisation that promotes free shows at the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Free Fringe venues are commonly independently run bars and nightclubs which create performance spaces in their premises for the duration of the Fringe Festival...
- DIY culture
- Battle of the BeanfieldBattle of the BeanfieldThe Battle of the Beanfield took place over several hours on the afternoon of Saturday 1 June 1985 when Wiltshire Police prevented a vehicle convoy of several hundred new age travellers, known as "The Convoy" and referred to in the media as the "Peace Convoy" from setting up at the 11th Stonehenge...
- Woodstock FestivalWoodstock FestivalWoodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
, 1969
External Links
- The Free Festivals 1969-1990 - ukrockfestivals.com
- http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_x25qcM223AC&pg=PA15&dq=Free+festivals+are+practical+demonstrations+of+what+society+could+be+like+all+the+time:+miniature+utopias+of+joy+and+communal+awareness+rising+for+a+few+days+from+a+grey+morass+of+mundane,+inhibited,+paranoid+and+repressive+everyday+existence&hl=en&ei=pZTVTJnYNZOKhQeHt7yABQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Free%20festivals%20are%20practical%20demonstrations%20of%20what%20society%20could%20be%20like%20all%20the%20time%3A%20miniature%20utopias%20of%20joy%20and%20communal%20awareness%20rising%20for%20a%20few%20days%20from%20a%20grey%20morass%20of%20mundane%2C%20inhibited%2C%20paranoid%20and%20repressive%20everyday%20existence&f=falseGeorge McKay - Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance Since the Sixties:Free Festivals]