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For information on today's festivals see eFestivals.co.uk

1967-1990.

Photo © Glenda

    No don't panic , you are entering a zone which MAY offend your bourgeois sensibilities, but as long as you keep in mind that you are exploring a site dedicated to those who tried to live in an alternative manner , to push the boundaries , to take risks and who also made many sacrifices along the way for their lifestyle, then you may , just may come to appreciate their take on life, even if you don't agree with it .

Arthur Wally and friend, Watchfield Free festival 1975

Photo © N Ayers

    There's still precious little in the way of documentation on many of these festivals online. In an attempt to create somewhere where those interested in the early history of free festivals can easily find something about all the festivals - or at least the fact that some of them took place at all , we've created this index of the free festivals we know of and sites that contain any information about them . If the site has a good deal of information about the festival we have linked directly to it and marked the page with a #. If its hardly got any content we've usually added the information to the pages we have created about the event . Most of the pages now contain links to photo sites of the festivals on the net , bands that played at the festivals and any recording details .

   We have built this site from contributions from our viewers, the people who attended the festivals .I never cease to be amazed at just how wonderfully generous most people are in contributing their pix and their memories to add to the site. The only problem we really have had is getting many later travellers to go for it . There are notable exceptions , but there are far fewer contributions than we would like from the hardcore travellers of the late 80s and 90s . We'd like to take this opportunity to encourage anyone who was a part of the scene to write to us and make your voice a part of this site, which has been created for free for everyone , so the whole world can see just what went down in Thatchers Britain in those long dark years when the ' Iron Lady " made life miserable for anyone who wasn't prepared to toe the party line .

   We are proud of the contribution we have made to Andy Worthington's sociological history of Stonehenge and the free festival scene in the UK .This new book gives a fascinating insight into the various counter cultural obsessions with the Stones and provides a variety of new perspectives to many of the key events surrounding the Henge such as the Battle Of The Beanfield and the more recent attempts hold a celebration at the Stones during the Solstice.Find out more about this great book by clicking on the image on the left and visit the Heart of Albion Press web site .

July 2008
Nosh and Bill

Nosh - half of the famous Waggy Poo Cafe in the early eighties - purveyors of the finest bacon sarnies and greasy fry ups on the free festival scene. Bill and Nosh built the Waggy Poo Cafe trailer and toured the free festival circuit for several years - eventually 'borrowing' £2 grand from the Nat West bank and emigrating to Spain where they proceded to build a puppet show and drink a lot of brandy.

Both Bill (who sadly passed away to the great Coco Loco in the sky several years ago) and Nosh were very well respected and loved by all their fellow travellers as kind , generous and creative people. Nosh always had the kettle on for a brew and bill was the only man ever to succesfully weld ice to a slug - an engineering feat still unsurpassed in modern times !.

Bills son , and Nosh's adopted son is Nick Wilkinson - who went to Holland in the eighties and trained under many world class spanish guitarists to become one of the finest Flamenco players in England (www.123flamenco.com) . Nosh is survived by Nick and her daughter Trish.
Posted by Convoy Steve