Festivals Britannia Page #9

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A lot of crooks got involved in it. A lot of heavy duty drug dealers got involved in it.

There were big marquees with state-of-the-art sound systems, and all this security with all these

pit-bulls all around it. They were right proper villains.

The rave scene quickly became expensive, unreliable and a bit seedy.

So a handful of sound systems ventured further afield in search of something different,

and in the process, forged an unlikely alliance.

We were going to things like Longstock, which had displaced Stonehenge.

As we got the sound system up and running, travellers would begin to appear out of the woodwork.

It just happened slowly.

I went to one festival and you could hear "Boom, boom, boom".

- It was keeping me up.

- I needed to be convinced.

- I thought "I don't like this".

- But suddenly, you see all the old guard listening to rave music.

It was just one of them moments of harmony.

Everyone just...you know, crusty travellers were putting on trainers and jumpsuits and baggy clothes.

It was a beautiful moment.

It had the power of the original Summer of Love.

I remember going to one of these kind of parties about 30 miles away from Stonehenge in the end.

On the edge, there was the start of what became Spiral Tribe,

just setting up a sound system next to what was a sort of travellers' festival. The travellers liked it.

The new blood people, the people into dance music, liked it,

and it was all working like a nice little thing.

It came together. We were bringing the music and the system.

They were providing the location and some other things, so, you know, it was a joint venture.

And it was this coming together of two outlaw gangs that briefly

reignited and reimagined the free festival scene in Britain.

The whole free festival and free party scene grew and grew

till you got to Castlemorton, where there was what, 60,000 to 100,000.

# In sweet harmony, in sweet harmony

# In sweet harmony... #

This impromptu festival at Castlemorton, Worcestershire,

in 1992, reached an unprecedented scale through word of mouth alone.

It was the pinnacle of the new underground,

and put the wind up the government all over again.

You had loads of vehicles everywhere.

You had double-deckers, your techno traveller types, your zippy ravers,

your crusties with dogs, your straight-up ravers with beanies and caps.

You had everyone there, and everyone was mingling. The party went straight through.

It started Friday, all day Saturday, all day Sunday to Monday and Tuesday.

And there was a naked man running about by Monday morning. There's bound to be a couple.

A friend said it was the Woodstock of our generation. She was probably right.

Scared the crap out of the government, because what could they do?

There wasn't a police force in the country that could deal with 40,000 people arriving on a place.

The Castlemorton thing was the straw that broke the camel's back.

How many days did it go on?

It was almost like sports coverage on the news. They kept saying, "And another day at Castlemorton..."

REPORTER:
'A week ago, the 20,000 travellers had sprawled all over the common

'at an illegal music festival, with beat music pounding out from numerous discos day and night'.

Why is it on Friday night, we have a man wielding a machete

in our orchard, chasing our lamb, shouting "meat"?

The police came down on them like a ton of bricks, and that was the start of the Criminal Justice Bill.

This summer at Castlemorton and other places saw outrageous

and unacceptable examples of the problems caused by New Age travellers and ravers.

APPLAUSE:

There will be no soft option under the Criminal Justice Act.

Celebrate our multicultural society!

Celebrate our right to free assembly, and celebrate our right to party!

MUSIC:
"Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack.

The events at Castlemorton presented the government

with an opportunity to force through the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act,

a piece of legislation which outlawed open air

gatherings of more than ten people listening to "music characterised by a succession of repetitive beats".

Up to then, dance music had been run mostly by goodwill and happy amateurs.

All of sudden, that was a turning point where people

had to get serious and go "Right, I'm going professional now".

Disorganised festivals,

that's what the government can't deal with. Can't have that much chaos.

Can't have a situation where they can't control people, where people can just do what they want.

It's too much of a threat to them.

They bring the weight of the law on you, and then paint you as the demons that are, I don't know,

corrupting the youth or something, and then bring in new legislation to tighten down on all of us.

It was a period that the UK changed quite dramatically

from what it was to what it became.

MUSIC:
"Born Slippy" by Underworld

Music was also changing in the mid '90s, as the underground went overground.

Indie bands turned into pop stars.

Dance music became mainstream.

And festivals reflected this change of mood, as they became fashionable, even cool.

But as they became ever more popular, Britain's festivals

were also being obliged to get serious about law and order.

Even at the traditionally free-spirited Glastonbury,

this new landscape of legislation was reshaping its future.

How many people heard this after last year's event, that music

was stopped, the stage had to be cleared because of severe crushing?

We are proposing to grant a licence for 100,500 people, knowing full well

that the dance tent last year was absolutely horrendous.

It's comical, really.

I think for the safety of people, we've got to go one way or the other.

We either reduce the numbers and make it safe, or we get

a licence for 180,000 people, knowing that this is probably

what's going to turn up, given fine weather.

# Karma police

# Arrest this girl

# Her Hitler hairdo Is making me feel ill

# And we have crashed her party... #

If our festival was going to survive,

then we had to work with the establishment,

because there was no way that fighting the establishment

would result in success.

# This is what you'll get when you mess with us... #

In 2002, Glastonbury Festival was required to erect a super fence in order to keep its licence.

The spirit of anarchy unleashed at the Isle of Wight back in 1970 now seemed symbolically contained.

The idea of a free festival was over.

No-one would get into Glastonbury for free any more.

It was becoming a bit of a monster, because it was very difficult to control.

So the police and the council said,

"Look, you've got to get to grips with this,

"because this is getting dangerous now".

So they determined to design a fence that couldn't be taken down, you see.

With stricter controls and tighter legislation,

festivals over the last decade have ceased to be seen as the open threat they once were to middle England.

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