Of course, it WASN'T the same at all.The musical soundtrack was very different, a mix of folk, reggae, blues, acid house, psych rock, punk and world music - and with very few major bands figuring in the line up . The people were a very different mix as well. Crusties, brew crewers, hippies, punks, weekend warriors , fashion mutants and travellers of all kinds. Also, although the festival was very badly organised ,it seems like the security stayed around for most of the time and made sure people paid to get in !

   By 1989 the UK festival scene was a hybrid of 30 years of musical and sub cultural trends, all mixed up together so that it was hard to really define anyone as being a 'typical ' anything, whereas early 70s festivals were very 'samey' - often seas of denim and long hair. Probably the defining interest that almost everyone who was there seemed to share was the desire to get off their collective faces on as many different substances as possible. Legal or illegal.

  If one judges the organisational caliber of a festival from the festival program, then Treworgey looked very good. Beautiful graphics, lots of facilities,such as first aid, childcare, lost children's area, advice about safe sex, advice how not to take illegal drugs ( arf, arf) and a good site map.

  However, perhaps the advice on the right about getting pissed was more on the right track. Gone were the days when hippies did only hallucinogens in pure circumstances, with booze looked upon as a poison and acid considered a sacrament . No doubt there were folks who still looked at it that way, but for many it was a question of necking down a few tabs, drain as much special brew as possible, smoke a few chillums and then see what else you could add to the mix . As one veteran Treworgey attendee wrote

" I know why you are lacking in accounts for e Fayre and Treworgey - we were all trollied!

  We know that there was big traveller contingent present and that many of the people who were at the travellers field in Glasto moved on to Treworgey. It appears that a load of folks arrived early ( as was the travellers wont) and this possibly made it hard to get the festival organised.

...many travellers went to Treworgey from Glastonbury...Large chunks of it became a free festival immediately, and as the weekend wore on, and the organisation became more chaotic, the barriers began to come down. By Sunday, Treworgey had become one of the largest free festivals ever... Treworgey was a festival to remember.

It also showed how much talent and energy travellers can put into an event when they get the chance.

Alex Rosenburger

    Most people seem to agree that Saturday was the day the wheels came off the cart ....

Another wild Cornish festival was Treworgey Tree Fayre which fell apart at the seams on the second day.

Joe

   The security eventually retreated from the Travellers field, after they had ripped off a large quantity of hash from a convoy member and this led to a few confrontations . Eventually they were paid and left .

   Its unlikely the organisers were prepared to look after the needs of 40.000. That's a lot of people to cater for when you have never held a festy previously .

Especially if half of the attendees are off their faces !

    Unfortunatley the poor sod who organised the whole event lost a lot of dough , mostly due to people not being willing to pay the entrance fee .....

The main stage Photo © Marpete

me & some mates had a sound system we done small parties with & got tickets for the festy with the intention to set up a do, but our tickets were taken from us by bogus security & after setting up our rig & mutoid style creations, we were moved on by the real security. Luckily a friendly chap who knew one of our crew from the stonehenge days said we could set up by their tequilla bar. (thanks whoever u are) we had that sound system churning out the latest acid tracks 24hrs for 7 days!

   Ozric Tentacles and Hawkwind played Wango Riley's travelling stage and there are tapes of both bands playing at one time or another. There's even a single camera video shoot of Hawkwind which has been ruined by crap ' trippy ' visuals that prevent one from seeing the band for most of the time .

   This year, in my constituency, a local farmer decided to hold such an event at Treworgey, a small hamlet just two miles north of the market town of Liskeard, over the weekend of 28-30 July. At least three weeks before it, individuals of a certain type, euphemistically described as travellers, began to arrive in the vicinity. The men dressed distinctively, in a way that I can only describe as having a certain commonality with paramilitary denim uniforms. They wore army boots without laces. (shock , horror !)

  Their method of transport was varied, and included converted buses--single and double- decker--old ambulances, lorries, vans and even a pony and cart. Inevitably, they owned dogs. Their behaviour in the three weeks before the Treworgey tree fayre, in Liskeard and a neighbouring village called St. Cleer, can only be described as provocative. Local residents, particularly elderly people and those with young children, were genuinely frightened and appalled by their behaviour and as a consequence their presence required enhanced high-profile policing.

  Of the 40,000 or so who subsequently attended the Treworgey tree fayre, the group of travellers who came in advance formed only a small minority of about 1,000. Unfortunately, because they came early, they set the tone for the event and conditioned local reaction and attitudes to the event. It is not without significance, as I represent a law-abiding electorate who are conservative with a small "c"--and, I hope, with a big "C" at election times--that they were horrified that such people could openly flaunt around Liskeard, with state benefits probably their only source of income. I do not intend to labour that point as I hope that the revised regulations introduced a couple of months ago may have the desired effect and that benefit entitlement will be tightened up for such people.

  The source of the problems at the event was, I believe, lack of preparation and organisation. I said that 40,000 people attended. The vast majority of them were young people who wanted to spend a few days at a music festival in a lovely part of the world but, because of the lack of organisation, it displayed the usual characteristics--no running water and inadequate toilet facilities. I spent three hours at the event incognito on the Saturday evening. The few inadequate toilet facilities were not working. They were all blocked up. There was no running water and there were virtually no refuse collection facilities. There was also a lack of car parking areas. I could continue.

   The effects of the event on our local community in south-east Cornwall were considerable. Again I provide a factual and not an exaggerated or subjective account. First, enhanced policing was required over the two- month period. During the event, 280 police officers were involved. To put that in perspective, that is the same figure, purely fortuitously, as the total police establishment for the whole of the eastern half of Cornwall. The additional cost of policing before, during and after the event over and above normal policing levels for the area was £191,000. That was the estimate provided by the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall.

   The second effect was that the travellers came early and remained long after the event. That led to subsequent problems of trespass and illegal camping.