The Stonehenge Free Festival was a British free festival from 1972 to 1984 held at

Stonehenge in England during the month of June, and culminating on the summer solstice on
June 21. The festival was a celebration of various alternative cultures. The Tibetan Ukrainian
Mountain Troop, The Tepee People, Circus Normal, the Peace Convoy, new age travellers
and the Wallys were notable counter culture attendees.

Not to be confused with Glastonbury Festival

The stage hosted many bands including Hawkwind, Gong, Doctor and the Medics, Flux of
Pink Indians, Buster Blood Vessel, Omega Tribe, Crass, Selector, Dexys Midnight Runners,
Thompson Twins, The Raincoats, Brent Black Music Co-op, Amazulu, Wishbone Ash, Man,
Benjamin Zephaniah, Inner City Unit, Here and Now, Cardiacs, The Enid, Roy Harper,
Jimmy Page and Zorch all played for free.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 History
• 2 Spirit
• 3 Conflict
• 4 Battle of the Beanfield
• 5 See also
• 6 Bibliography

• 7 External links

[edit] History

Stonehenge emerged as the most important free festival after the violent suppression of the
Windsor Free Festival, in August 1974, and the lack of success in finding a permanent home
for the People's Free Festival, after Watchfield 1975.

[edit] Spirit

By the 80s, the festival had grown to be a major event attracting up to 65,000 in 1984. Yet
brief reports are the only coverage we have been able to find of the festivals in the mainstream
press. Since the festival was closely allied to Glastonbury, 1981 was a festival to remember,
Perfect weather, a fantastic lineup of bands, (see below) listed as the best free festival
worldwide of that year (1981) some of these bands took a break from touring (Thompson
Twins, Killerhertz, Hawkwind and the Lightning Raiders)to perform at this festival (at no fee)
this enabled thousands of people who could not afford the pricey Reading and Glastonbury
festivals, to have a beautiful summer celebration of their own.

The 1981 list of bands include Red Ice, Selector, 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 Allens future, Inner Visions, Red Beat, Man to Man Triumphant, Stolen Pets,
Seeds of Creation, Coxone Sound System Black Widow, Here and Now, Hawkwind, Steel
and Skin, The Lines, 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.

[edit] Conflict

The festival attendees were viewed as hippies (and some were, in fact, self-described hippies)
by the wider British public. This, along with the open drug use and sale, contributed to the
increase in restrictions on access to Stonehenge, as 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. However as late as 1984 the
police-festival relations were relaxed: just a nominal presence (a PC + a WPC) in the car park.
On solstice morning people sat on the stones and offered their spliffs to the police below, who
politely declined. Stonehenge's meaning has been historically contested, and that trend was
dramatically continued in 1985 when English courts banned the Free Festival from being held
at Stonehenge. The ruling came so late that some Free Festivallers did not know about it, and
several hundred attempted to show up in defiance of the ruling.

[edit] Battle of the Beanfield

The ensuing confrontation with police ended in the Battle of the Beanfield and no free festival
has been held at Stonehenge since, though people have been allowed to gather at the stones
again for the solstice since 1999.

[edit] See also

• Phil Russell, aka Wally Hope, co-founder of the Stonehenge and Windsor free
festivals

[edit] 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. ISBN 1-85984-028-0

[edit] 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)