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Updated Jan 2007

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Stonehenge Free Festivals chronology.

1983.

Part 6-1984-85

   1983 had an audience of around 30,000 during the week , peaking at 70,000 during the solstice weekend . The festival grew exponentially during 83 and 84 , with far more casual visitors, so the hard core of old school hippies and travellers became more of a minority, thus some aspects of festival ettiquette declined as it was almost impossible to instruct so many newcomers on how they were expected to behave . As more people who were not there for a spiritual purpose attended, so were more dealers attracted to the festival , some of whom were selling opiates . The heavy drugs were contrary to the original ethos of the festival , which for many was a spiritual exercise in which the ingestion of hallucinogens was an essential part of the pilgrimage to the Stones .Opiates dulled the senses, whereas hallucinogens heightened awareness,plus of course they were far less dangerous in terms of overdose and the spreading of diseases and infections . The growth of the hard drug culture, between 82- 84 although always confined to a minority of festival goers - led to increasing police interest and gave the authorities a stronger excuse to shut the festival down .

   One must of course take all of this into perspective. During the years 81- 83 there were only 15 hospitalisations for drug overdoses - 3 in 1981 , 6 in 1982 and 6 in 1983. This was out of a total estimated attendance of 100,000 people. Overall , not an epidemic of drug abuse .Obviously the heavy drug presence DID increase over the years , but this was a more a reflection of changes in society and the composition of the crowd than it was of the structure of the free festival itself . From the observations of many of the attendees , it depended on where you were at any point in time and the choices you made as to who you hung around with as to what sort of experience you would have at Stonehenge.

   Hard drugs make good headlines as well and one could expect media stories to focus on the negative elements of the scene rather than the positive. Yet again, we have seen photos of signs advertising smack for sale at the festival, so it wasn't that underground. We have tried to be as objective as possible and to get a true account of the festival during the 80s we would urge you all to read the FWS reports on the festival by following the links below , where you can read the statistics and find out how the festival was organised .

 

1983

       By 83 ,according to one source (which has yet to be confirmed by eyewitness reports ) , some of the stage crews threatened not to erect the stages unless hard drug dealers activities were curbed. Some patrons acted and expelled some of the dealers- thus pacifying the crews so the festival could go ahead. The PA had by now expanded to 12000 watts , which was a fair old size in anyone's book .

" We hired/borrowed the pa lights generators stage base/top etc and bucketed the audience to keep the genny running...DJ/MC/Roadie/Stage manager ...me " Big Steve

In order to prevent the decimation of the living local trees the National Trust provided free wood for the festival goers to use for their fires. Convoy News advised

"Love the countryside, close and fasten all gates , avoid crops and keep to the paths across farmland. Take litter with you , especially plastic and glass , keep dogs under contriol, don't frighten animals and protect wildlife. Label your children with their names and where they belong.Try to stop ripoffs, get to know your neighbours . Be nice to each other ."

Pyramid Stage 1983 -click image to see larger pix

' Stonehenge free festival is already in full swing and will continue throughout the rest of the month, though the main music stage is only operating for the period June 17th -22nd, with the principal contributors concentrated in the last of those three days - that's when some of the Glastonbury artists will be coming over to swell the list of artistes. They'll be joining up with the likes of The Impossible Dreamers, Carol Grimes, Here and Now, Poison Girls, Urban Shakedown and Orchestre Jazzira.'

Other artists on the bill included

Hawkwind, The Enid , Doctor and the Medics, Buster Bloodvessel, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Roy Harper, Urban Warrior, Ted Chippington, Flux of Pink Indians, the Tibetan Ukrainian Mountain Troupe ,Benjamin Zephaniah ,Chumbawumba, Passion Killers, Disturbance from Fear.

By now the barriers as to what sort of music would feature at the festival had melted somewhat and a wide range of bands played throughout to a far more mixed audience than at the start of the decade.

A Visitation ?

Another really strange anecdote for me was at the end of 83. Hawkwind had played Silvermachine exactly at the solstice sunrise and right on cue a F16 sped across the horizon leaving a trail right through the middle of the big red ball emerging over the horizon like rings round Saturn.
Not that it was that unusual for the RAF to buzz the site occasionally flying precariously close to the top of the pyramid at ridiculous speeds ( this regularly used to happen when I lived in East Anglia , they were not supposed to go below 300 feet but you could see the pilots faces quite clearly when they strafed the village, rather frightening .Despite all complaints the RAF said they NEVER went lower than they were allowed to , which was bullshit -ed )
Pass the chillum george boooooooom shanker.....
At the end , we were taking down the pyramid with Here& Now +crew and NikTurner after 6 days and nights of fabulous feasting , the weather was out of sight glorious sunshine and blue skies. We got down to the last piece and top of the pyramid to dismantle when a storm appeared from nowhere. As I quickly undid the last few nuts and bolts and threw the few remaining scaffold poles on to a flat bed truck lightning and thunder rolled all around me I was left looking down at the huge circle of flattened daisies that sid Rawles and I had dowsed at the beginning to locate the stage.

Turning, I headed for a teepee to seek shelter when suddenly I noticed a figure laying on the ground between me and the teepee. As I got closer he lifted his arm. "We enjoyed the festival this year" he said pointing with a finger toward the burial mounds.
"Thanks" I said. Looking at his face I was shocked to see that where his left eye should have been there was a black hole.
Nervously I hurried towards the teepee 25 feet in front of me to take a warm cup of tea from Nik who was inside
"Do you know what I have just seen"I said, turning round, "look."

But nothing . The figure had vanished.

"What" said Nik. A huge lightning bolt crashed into the centre of the stones. I shrugged my shoulders, lost in my thoughts, sipping on the piping hot brew. Was he one of the princes of stones somehow hologramed across centuries to thank me for our celebration ? . This was cosmic energy and way beyond the manifestations of divine synchronicity and discharges of weather magic.

God only knows.
big steve.

uh oh, theres a Maroose on the loose !

Phil ' the maroose ' was a long time free festy traveller. His van was destroyed by the police in 1985 during the infamous Beanfield incident.

Backstage 1983.

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Free rock festivals of the 70s and 80s

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