Stonehenge Free Festival

Genre| Rock music
Dates| month of June–21 June
Location(s)| Stonehenge in England
Years active| 1974 to 1984

The Stonehenge Free Festival was a British free festival from 1974 to 1984 held at the prehistoric monument Stonehenge in England during the month of June, and culminating with the summer solstice on or near 21 June. It emerged as the major free festival in the calendar after the violent suppression of the Windsor Free Festival in August 1974, with Wally Hope providing the impetus for its founding, and was itself violently suppressed in 1985 in the Battle of the Beanfield, with no free festival held at Stonehenge since although people have been allowed to gather at the stones again for the solstice since 1999.

By the 1980s, the festival had grown to be a major event, attracting up to 30,000 people in 1984.[1] The festival attendees were branded as hippies by the British press.[citation needed] This, along with the open drug use and sale, contributed to the increase in restrictions on access to Stonehenge, and fences were erected around the stones in 1977. The same year, police resurrected a moribund law against driving over grassland in order to levy fines against festival goers in motorised transport. By 1984 police-festival relations were relaxed with only a nominal police presence required.[citation needed]

## Contents

* 1 Bands
* 2 See also
* 3 Bibliography
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## Bands

The festival was a celebration of various alternative cultures. The Tibetan Ukrainian Mountain Troupe, The Tepee People, Circus Normal, the Peace Convoy, New Age Travellers and the Wallys were notable counterculture attendees.[citation needed]

The stage hosted many bands including Hawkwind, Zorch, Poison Girls, Doctor and the Medics, Flux of Pink Indians, Buster Blood Vessel, Omega Tribe, Killing Joke, The Selecter, Dexys Midnight Runners, Thompson Twins, Bronz, The Raincoats, The 101ers, Jeremy Spencer & the Children of God, Brent Black Music Co-op, Killerhertz, Mournblade, Amazulu, Wishbone Ash, Man, Benjamin Zephaniah, Inner City Unit, Here and Now, Cardiacs, The Enid, Roy Harper, Jimmy Page, Ted Chippington,Ozric Tentacles and Vince Pie and the Crumbs, who all played for free.[citation needed]

The 1981 list of bands included Red Ice, Selecter, Theatre of Hate, Sugar Minott, Doll by Doll, Thompson Twins, Night Doctor, Merger, Androids of Mu, Deaf Aids, Killerhertz, The Raincoats, Thandoy, Foxes and Rats, ICU Lightning Raiders, Psycho Hampster, Misty in Roots, Andy Allen's Future, Inner Visions, Red Beat, Man to Man Triumphant, Stolen Pets, Seeds of Creation, Sorcerer, Coxone Sound System, Black Widow, Here and Now, Hawkwind, Steel and Skin, The Lines, Waiting for Arnold, Play Dead, Cauldron, Lighting by Shoe, Flux of Pink Indians, The Mob, Treatment, Popular History of Signs, The Wystic Mankers, Elsie Steer and Cosmic Dave.[citation needed]

## See also

* List of historic rock festivals
* List of jam band music festivals
* Phil Russell, aka Wally Hope, co-founder of the Stonehenge and Windsor free festivals.
* Council of British Druid Orders

## Bibliography

* McKay, George (1996) Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties: chapter one "The free festivals and fairs of Albion", chapter two "O life unlike to ours! Go for it! New Age travellers". London: Verso Books. ISBN:1-85984-028-0.

## References

1. ↑ History of the Stonehenge Free Festival :1972-1985.

## External links

* Stonehenge free festivals 1972-85 - An illustrated History
* Tash's Stonehenge Festival and "Exclusion Zone" photo galleries
* BBC 2004 Stonehenge "Festival History" article
* "Stonehenge Campaign"
* Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion by Andy Worthington (Alternative Albion, 2004)

* v
* t
* e

Stonehenge

Structure and
surroundings|

* Altar Stone
* Aubrey holes
* Bluestone
* Excavations at Stonehenge
* Heel Stone
* Heelstone Ditch
* Laser scanning at Stonehenge
* Q and R Holes
* Sarsen
* Station Stones
* Stonehenge Landscape
* Stonehenge road tunnel
* Trilithon
* Y and Z Holes

Replicas
and derivatives|

* Achill-henge
* America's Stonehenge
* Carhenge
* Foamhenge
* Maryhill Stonehenge
* Mystical Horizons
* Phonehenge West
* Stonehenge Aotearoa
* Stonehenge II
* Stonehenge replica (Odessa, Texas)
* Wally Wallington

Studies|

* Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge
* Stonehenge in its landscape
* Stonehenge Riverside Project
* Theories about Stonehenge
* The Salisbury Museum
* Wiltshire Museum

In culture|

* Battle of the Beanfield
* Bringing Back the Bluestones
* Polytantric Circle
* Stonehenge Free Festival

Concepts|

* Earth mysteries
* Megalithic architectural elements
* Mount Killaraus

* Category

[ ⚑ ]  51°10′44″N 1°49′34″W﻿ / ﻿51.17889°N 1.82611°W﻿ / 51.17889; -1.82611

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