The Archive
Formatted at 1280 X 1024 res
created Jan 22nd 2003
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For
information on today's festivals see eFestivals.co.uk |
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Ruthin
free festival
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Festival
Aid Report
Ruthin Festival was held on the first week-end in June at
Horseshoe Pass in North Wales.
Festival
Aid travelled up in Sharon's van on Thursday 5th June, arriving in the area
at about 8pm. On the main approach road to the site we were overtaken and
flagged
down by two men. Sharon pulled up bewildered and they then identified themselves
to be Drug Squad officers.
They
told us that the festival was cancelled and when we expressed disbelief
they searched us and our van by the roadside. On explaining that we were
a Welfare Team
they showed no belief and detained us approximately half an hour.
After this somewhat disturbing incident coupled with rumours that the site was only a grass verge adjacent to the main road we approached the site with some trepidation. Fortunately these fears proved unfounded.
The site stretched for a quarter of a mile up the side of a mountain. It was bare, desolate and sloping. There were about 150 people on site when we arrived including the Caroline Roadshow. We set up our tents half way into the site, expressing amazement at the lack of flat ground.
The next day we were visited by the Environmental Health Officers representatives a Mr Fiddling and his colleague.They were very helpful. They complained that they had not had enough notice of the event and that no money was available. We tried to explain about the problems of small free festivals. They laid on two water bowsers(one was actually taken up the hill onto the site), rubbish bags, disinfectant, a skip and they attempted to install portaloos next to the cafe. Meanwhile, Mr Pottinger, the cafe proprietor, kept his toilets open 24hours a day and regularly cleaned. In fact, Mr Pottinger was very helpful throughout the festival, and his café was well patronised. The only difficulty we had with him was an incident early in the festival when a mobile snack bar/disco was trading directly opposite the cafe on ground he had trading rights to. After discussions with Festival Aid the offending traders moved away from the road and everyone was happy.
Festival Aid were kept fairly busy with a constant stream of minor first aid problems - mainly cuts, dog bites and sprained ankles. The Police were extremely active, devious and heavy, and Festival Aid were hard pressed to cope with the volume of work; especially since three members of the small team were, themselves, unwell.
As
well as this stream of work there were 3 major incidents over the weekend.
On Saturday about 50 bikers arrived and dumped themselves on a site of 500
hippies. As there was a considerable shortage of cannabis on site the bikers
resorted to alcohol. The situation became tense, with bikers roaming the
site in packs, destroying tents and intimidating people. This behaviour
eventually led to someone being hit over the head and Festival Aid took
him to Wrexham Hospital where he received eight stitches. Charlie, of Festival
Aid, made contact with the leader of the bikers and this intervention,(together
with two Festival Aid members joining in with the meths drinking) calmed
the situation down somewhat. Later on Saturday evening 20 bikers came into
the Festival Aid tent and though there were problems due to the lack of
space, a merry sing song was had by all.
On
Sunday morning a car turned over on the approach road luckily no one was
hurt.
On Sunday afternoon we heard that two people had fallen into a disused slate
quarry adjacent to the site. Charlie and Tash ran over and assessed the
situation; Tash stayed to administer what aid he could and Charlie went
to inform the Police in the cafe car-park of the serious situation, requesting
an ambulance and mountain rescue team. The two young men had fallen between
40 and 60 feet down the shaft. One was unconscious, the other unable to
move but able to talk to the rescue team.
Festival Aid are most concerned at what they saw as an unnecessary delay before the arrival of the ambulance and rescue services. The Police, instead of acting on the information given by our worker, wasted an hour making their own independent assessment, although eventually arriving at the same conclusions. Throughout the rescue Tash remained calm and courageous, climbing into the entrance of the shaft with another local ambulance man to reassure the injured men. The injured were taken to Wrexham, where one was discovered to have broken his back. These two people were unconnected with the festival.
The weather was generally wet, cold and windy, but despite this there was some excellent music from a black plastic bag stage.
If Festival Aid attends this event in 1981 more pre-festival liaison would be helpful and a worker for specific legal matters would be needed.
The site was mostly cleared by Tuesday and those remaining left in convoy
for Stonehenge Festival later that week.
Vikky D .Festival
Aid.