In 1979 , the last year of the festival, there was a change of management , with Chris, Dave Andy and Eddie deciding to let others be the prime movers . This was due to some disagreements over the direction the festival was to take, both in philosophy and of a practical nature. In 78 there had been some problems with people overstaying their welcome after the festival, Also, as the event became more popular,the usual issues of cleaning up the site, just how free a festival could be in terms of drug use and other illegal issues became a major issue which was not easily resolved .

    Unfortunately , the change of management was not successful on all fronts. There were big problems in clearing up after the festival, when vital equipment was not returned to the hirers , as well as basic hygiene issues not being addressed . This souring of goodwill, combined with the change in ownership of the land, was enough to ensure that the Valley was not made available for a free festival again and the venue was changed to the far less salubrious Pickup Bank.

  There was also another difference in opinion regarding whether name bands expenses should be paid for by the festival .Chris Hewitt , Dave Edwards , Andy Burgoyne, Eddie Kledjys , Henry Kledjys and " the camp of hippies with an attitude of lets think of the long term consequences of what we are doing " were supporters of this strategy .  

Chris Hewitt ; regarding the payment issue in 1978
"I rang Steve Hillage's manager Steve Lewis and we negotiated . I gave him £500 for Steve ,Miquette and David Id their sound man ,as well as the rest of the band ,to fly back from Finland [ where the band were appearing at the Festival of the Midnight Sun ] and appear at Deeply Vale. This was the best night ever "

Here and Now Deeply Vale 1979.

©mark kupsz.

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photo © Gary Heaford

    In retrospect this made made better sense in terms of the quality of event rather than quantity of bands who would play for free . In 1979, there were fewer top quality bands , so the event took a downturn in musical quality . Perhaps coincidentally there was a downturn in community spirit , with fences being ripped up to be burnt and a rape on the site. This caused a major fallout between Chris Hewitt on one side and John Clarke and Jim O'Neill on the other. Now, in hindsight , John Clarke, the main mover behind the 1979 and the Pickup Bank event, has come to the conclusion that Chris Hewitt and co were right . He now works closely with Chris to keep the archive and memories alive . John now maintains a firm anti heroin stance -another bone of contention between the sides in 1979.

    It was the same old story that dogged the alternative society throughout its existence,and which was to cause problems at Stonehenge in the 1980s- differences in philosophy about just what was acceptable behaviour. Some wanted the freedom to do anything , no rules no matter what the affect was on others . This attitude too often proved to be self defeating - as it ignored the fact that there were authorities out there who were only too happy to have an excuse to clamp down on free festivals - and the anarchists and hard liners provided them with one .

   Unfortunately, this attitude often overwhelmed the other main tenet of the hippie creed, which was the far more reasonable "do anything , but think of the consequences of your acts and if it hurts someone else, then don't do it," philosophy which the majority tended to adhere to . However, in a contest of which made a better news item it was always going to be the more extreme acts that got into the spotlight ,so ultimately , the irresponsible fringe minority stuffed things up for the majority and that's one reason we don't have so many free festivals anymore.

    For all that, Deeply Vale was one of the most successful of the free festivals of the 70s, it had the best organisation and featured some of the best bands to appear at a free festival in the late 1970s. Let Grant Showbiz, who played at Deeply Vale and later became producer of The Fall, Billy Bragg and the final Smiths album,have the final word "

Deeply Vale was created out of nothing by disaffected and discarded people with no influence. The organisation was brilliant from people who had been thrown away, thrown out of school, told they were shit and could never do anything. Deeply Vale was one of the first punk festivals. You had punk kids with no tents or festival experience collapsing when they could no longer move. On the other hand, there were festival veterans with long hair and their kids and bloody flowers everywhere and this whole thing when punk met hippie turned into crustie ".

The festival was moved in 1980 under rather contentious circumstances to Pickup Bank. and you can follow its history at that site by clicking on the link .

Here and Now Deeply Vale 1979.

© mark kupsz.