The Archive
Formatted at 1024 X 768 res or higher - created Jan 2002. Updated April 2007 .
Tangmere (Seasalter ) Free festival. August 27th-5th September 1976. Broadoak Valley. Kent. |
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photo© Paul Clarke |
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Roger continues his narration
" The
Festival was held in a field right of the north coast of Kent just to the
east of Margate. The police acted at every opportunity like sadistic bastards
trying to put the punters off - one example was where two guys hitched down
from Tyneside only to be stopped by the gate by the police and taken to Canterbury
and stripped searched and held for six hours before being let free. At 3am
they then walked miles back to site only to be stopped again and in a gentle
rain had the thoroughly searched contents of their rucksacks tipped out in
a puddle then the police walked away laughing.
The photo below left shows the more motivated members onsite protesting against
this unreasonable behaviour and to ensure media coverage they marched in the
nude - I was out of shot."
| Read more about Rogers adventures at Seasalter with new photos and illustrations Jan 2007 |
| The festival was shifted from pillar to post in a mad scramble to see it off from any site that was chosen by the organisers and the advisors from the government committee who were liasing with the festival coterie,( amongst whom was Sid Rawle of Windsor fame , who by now was living with the tipi people, a staple ingedient of all the free festivals of the era) .No matter where the festival was supposed to be located , residents, ,MP's police and local authorities were united in their resistance, mostly because the festival was associated with Windsor .Originally meant to happen at Tangmere airport( famous as a Batlle of Britain fighter base ) the location was detected by the infamous Thames Valley Festival Intelligence and Discouragement Group (what a lovely name ) , who of course informed the locals so, as usual , an injunction was slapped on the site. The local council also was worried that a batch of vacent houses on the site might be squatted in , creating a semi -permanent settlement of freaks in their midst- so servicemen and their families were rapidly moved into the vacant houses. |
Seasalter campsite photo© Paul Clarke |
Various
other locations were inspected and rejected for different reasons, including
Plumpton and Lewes, and fianlly Briad Oak Valley in Kent was announced as
the venue. Once again the authorites brought forth their big guns and did
their best to prevent the event from taking place. Injunction (aren't you
getting fed up with that word )police roadblocks and fences were erected to
keep out the hairy hordes and the organisers and the government advisor were
told to keep off ths site. At this juncture the only thing that could be done
was to chose another site near Broadoak, at the last moment and hope that
by occupying the site as quickly and with as maany people as possible before
the authorities had time to act. Once residence was established they were
reluctant to remove a large crowd for fear of another Windsor, so the attendees
just had to worry about being harassed or busted en-route to and from the
site.
When the vangauard of the Tipi
people arrived at Broad Oak Valley they were met by the police and turned
back at ther roadblocks , undeterred they moved to the local coastal village
of Seasalter and occupied a marshy field next to the estuary. Agreement was
somewhat relcuctantly reached after some negotiation with the farmer who owned
the land and the festival was allowed to go ahead. The police then began to
stop and search people who were on their way to the festival , as Roger will
attest in his story.
Sunny Seasalter campsite photo© Paul Clarke |
The
weather, which had been gloriously warm for most of the summer , predictably
turned over the bank hoiliday and the resultant cold , wet and windy
weather put a damper on the procedings. Because of the last minute change
of venue many of the scheduled bands did not show up and facilities
were also limited . However, The Hell's Angels did manage to show up
, an event that was not welcomed by some ( especially after their activities
at Watchfield in 1975) however, they seem to have been pretty peaceable
on this occasion as there were no internecine gang wars to blight the
scene. . The absurdly high costs of policing about 1000 people in a field came to £200,000, around £20, 000 per attendee. and even the locals felt that there had been an over-reaction. It would have been cheaper to have provided a government site that could have been more easily policed and to concentrate on providing decent facilities rather than busting small time recreational drug users and dealers . It is interesting that there were never any huge hauls of drugs made at these festivals. The major dealers would have known that the chances of being busted were far too high and would have stayed away, as usual it was the small timers who got caught . |
Any info to add ?-well don't just sit there , Contact email
Read more about Rogers adventures at Seasalter with new photos and illustrations Jan 2007
Music.
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