Thanks to Graham Broughton for these articles he bought on the way back from the festival  Both articles had the same photos but differed slightly in content. 

 
Getting away from it all jazz fans take to the fields.

   BLUESVILLE is the temporary tented town of more than 200 acres two miles from Shepton mallet (pop 6,500). The festival of 20 international blues and progressive groups ended there last night as it began - with mammoth traffic jams. Organizers had to pay farmers up to £30 an acre for many overspill car parks. And all these were emptying into the same roads at different points. 

 
"Its been chaos. The worst weekend of traffic intensity the West Country has
ever known," said a senior policeman.
Litter

   Yesterday by noon police isolated Bluesville - the Bath and West farm show ground - with a circular traffic system when they could get the traffic moving.

Today it becomes "litter town" with its broken bottles, tons of thousands of soft drink cans, mountains of paper and scattered rubbish. Police who patrolled outside the festival area - none were inside - praised:

"These kids have been no trouble, very well behaved from our point of view."

Keep off     A drugs warning came early yesterday when several young pop fans had been treated for the after effects of a type of LSD drug.  "Keep off acid," said a banner, "It's poor quality." Yesterday seven drug sufferers lay on mattresses in the hospital building. A Liverpool youth was holding the hand of his trembling friend who said:    "I paid £1 for a capsule of 'acid' a few hours ago. I think the pusher was a steward - he wore a label - he said it was pure laboratory stuff. I drank it all and I felt myself going away..."    Miss Caroline Coon, founder of Release which provides legal advice in drugs problems, said from her tented headquarters:  "We have helped many youngsters on bad trips here but the numbers are very small when compared with the size of the crowd. Cannabis is the thing here. Some kids have been fooled into buying some very poor LSD from the hustlers." STP     One Release worker thought the trouble drug was STP. "It is the most violent of its type." The blues programme ran so late that the complaining cottagers around Shepton Mallet were still hearing music at 4.0 a.m. on Sunday. Nobody could hear morning church bells across the meadow because somebody had started up again.

    Fans got their surprises and annoyances. A naked man leaped on stage during the Pink Floyd group show and was hauled off. Hells Angels moved in as self-appointed stewards in the VIP enclosure. Girls complained of inadequate sanitation. Folk singer Donovan, unbilled, gave a long free show.
Singer Julie Felix arrived in a farmer's field by helicopter to beat the
traffic jams.

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Bluesville's 150,000 fans (not a scrap of trouble) told: Pop back again!

    The sleepy town of Shepton Mallet waved a fond farewell to 150,000 pop fans last night.

And they left this open invitation for the youngsters at the folk and blues festival: "

You're welcome back any time."


They feared for the worst at the start of the non-stop pop jamboree - but 48 hours later police were able to report there had not been one arrest.

BIG JAMS

    One policeman said: 

" These kids have been no trouble - they have been very well behaved."
Police didn't even need to patrol inside the festival - they were being kept too busy by the giant traffic jams outside. The fans had  flocked from all over Britain, Europe and America to hear "progressive" music by leading pop groups. Their home for two days was "Bluesville," a tented town just outside Shepton
Mallet, Somerset. Comfort there was not as the 150,000 crammed in to the 112 acre site.
Even the local business men were caught on the hop by the invasion.

SOLD OUT

    Food shops in the town sold out. Pubs ran dry.
 

"Our cash and carry store took £8000 supplying traders who had run out. But
even they had finally to hang up the "sold out" sign."
Mr. David Morris, chairman of the town's Chamber of Commerce said:
 
"Everybody has been caught out by the number of youngsters.
"Even the organizers' optimistic estimate has been blown sky-high. We would
like to welcome back the fans provided there is better organization all
round."
There was only one commodity that didn't run out ... the music.
Singer Julie Felix arrived by helicopter to beat the jams and rode in to the ground as a pillion passenger with a Hell's Angel rider flanked by other motor cycles.

Hell's Angels also acted as self-appointed stewards.

OFFICIAL

    Later the Hell's Angels were made official stewards at the festival to ease mounting friction between them and other fans. One of the organizers told the fans that if they did not obey the angels' orders they would be dealt with as the Angels saw fit. Then a large number of angels stood up brandishing staves, bottles, hammers and motor-cycle chains.

As one official said: 
 

"It is better for them to be on our side."
A naked man leapt on stage during one group's act - and was hauled off again by the Hell's Angels.
Folk singer Donovan, who wasn't billed to appear, turned up and put on a free show.
One young woman was taken to Bath Maternity Hospital after an on-off-on
alert all day that she was going to have a baby.

KEEP OFF

   A warning was given to fans about L.S.D. pushers.
It came after several youngsters had been treated for the after effects of the drug.

An official announced: 

"Keep off the acid - it's poor quality."

Miss Caroline Coon, founder of Release ,an organization which provides legal advice in drugs problems, said at her  headquarters at the festival: 
 

"We have helped many youngsters on bad trips here but the numbers are very small when compared with the size of the crowd."


As the night wore on the fans began drifting home. They went in peace .. the way they had come.

And Shepton Mallet was thankful.
 
 

8 mm Film Archive

• Stills:Colosseum, stage, bikers, crowd & camp

Ross Mortimore's streaming Quicktime movie of the crowd features clear images of the stage PA , Colosseum onstage and bikers with Canned Heat at Bath as a soundtrack provided courtesy of Bob C .

Bandwidth and copyright restrictions mean we cant host audio/video so you will have to do with stills at the moment until we can do an alternative stream elsewhere. Please don't bug us to add it , we will do it when we have the time.

External Links to Bath related merchandise ( with which we have NO commerical links whatsoever )

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1970 Bath Festival we have brought out a special commemorative set. Anyone interested can view it on http://www.rockmusic-offer.co.uk/

A limited edition of reprints of the 1969 and 1970 Bath festival posters and Freddie Bannisters books on the Bath ,Lincoln 71 and Knebworth festivals can be bought online from the link below :
Rock festival memorabilia from various festivals can be viewed at the main Rock memorabilia page ,

Led Zeppelin at Bath photogallery

Visit the 1969 Bath Festival pages.