The Archive: a history of over 30 years of UK festivals .
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Being a social and musical history ( of sorts ) of commercial Rock festivals of the United Kingdom , from 1960 to 2000- and of the Free Festivals and related traveller scene of the United Kingdom , from 1965-2000.
Best viewed at 1920 x 1020 resolution or higher
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Feb 2024. |
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Links to our friends. Have a good laugh - go visit the Readers Doglist Andy Roberts fascinating book Albion Dreaming has much information about free festivals . Visit free festival film maker and ex journo Al Stokes site: view his ebooks and other cool stuff |
We had a major issue in December 2021 where the entire server crashed and the site has had to be completely restored, this has taken some time as there are over 25,000 items here. if you see any missing pages,images , please let us know . Please be patient and let us know if you find you get any 404 responses when you click on a link.
Please Contact us regarding any malfunctions such as bad links, missing images etc and we will try to fix them asap- please let us know the page you are viewing - it makes it much easier...:-)
This is a conservative free zone .........
"Although
it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most
stupid people are conservative."
John Stuart Mill
We couldn't do this without you .... so thanks ..... BUT .... We build this site through YOUR contributions and thus it is dedicated to all the lovely people who have donated their memories, documents,photos and recordings to us over the past sixteen years. However, probably due to social media, contributions are drying up. Because of this ( and old age creeping up on me )I'm now only updating every few months instead of weekly . If you want this site to be updated more regularly and you are sitting on photos or have memories to contribute, think, if you post them on Facebook, why not just email us a copy as well ? Then anyone can see the info at a central point, and not just those who are in the group you are contributing to. We want to keep this site going, but it will fade away if nothing is donated by the readers . The site is non profit making and will never accept paying adverts both as a tribute to your generosity and also because we still believe in the old hippie/digger ethos that giving something for free is a reward in itself ! There are too many of you to mention here, but we couldn't have done it without you, and for your efforts, many, many thanks ....... Please let me know of any images not displaying or broken links, etc.
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Find of the month : The Nice onstage at Rugby Rag ( Rugby Blues festival )1969 ©David Goodwin |
The links below are links to the major parts of the site. If you get lost anywhere just click to go back to the Return to Archive link, this link is on almost all the pages on the site.
UK
Free Festivals |
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1960s and 70s
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1970s and 80s |
UK Festivals of the 60s
Festival organisers and attendees
UK
Festivals of the 80 and 90s |
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Check out the latest updates July 2023
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We all know how we suffered at festivals from that vile UK weather back in the 60s and 70s- relive it all again by viewing.....
Order copies of these comics by artist Pete Loveday Latest works are entitled -Big Trip Travel Agency order by clicking on the link . "I know Pete Loveday's work well, and I love it! ": Hunt Emerson- cartoonist extraordinaire... |
Feature artists
information , reviews of shows and photogalleries
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Wanted... everything ! We always want more information on ANY UK festivals, but we are especially seeking any information about the following festivals. |
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1960s
1970s
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About the Archive.
When
we started this site 20 years ago we just intended to document a few festivals
we had attended in the late 60s and early 70s, but its taken over our lives
and become much more than that. In the past three years the site has expanded
greatly and now covers a 30 year time span - which may eventually go to 40 !
This is NOT a nostalgia site! Yes, we celebrate the past, but this is as much a sociological project as it is a musical odyssey. The Archive aims to eventually provide as much information as possible about all aspects of the major UK festivals, Free festivals and outdoor concerts from 1960 to 1990 and scrutinise them from sociological and musical perspectives . Festivals are not divorced from society and they usually mirror changes in our general culture as well as in musical tastes. As music fans we also provide information on many of the groups who performed at the festivals, well , we do have to have some fun !
So, that is our mission. BUT , only way that this can happen is if we get help from those of you who have memories, articles , photos and recordings of the events, so please - Contact us- before you snuff it !
To prove that we are not completely stuck in a time warp, in addition to the older stuff, the site also features sections about more modern festivals , such as Womadelaide and has some archival information about tours of Australia by various artists, mostly in the folk, blues and jazz arena. We also have provided many photos of featured artists and links to other sites where appropriate.
Hope you enjoyed the site and that you will visit The Archive again sometime soon!
