Stonehenge Free Festival
| Stonehenge Free Festival | |
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| Genre | Rock music |
| Dates | month of June–June 21 |
| 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 June 21. 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. The festival attendees were viewed as 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, 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. However, as late as 1984 the police-festival relations were relaxed: just a nominal presence (two police constables) in the car park.
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.
The stage hosted many bands including Hawkwind, Gong, Doctor and the Medics, Flux of Pink Indians, Buster Blood Vessel, Omega Tribe, Crass, The Selecter, Dexys Midnight Runners, Thompson Twins, Bronz, The Raincoats, The 101ers with Joe Strummer, 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, Zorch and Ozric Tentacles, Vince pie and the crumbs, which all played for free.
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