We try and keep an eye out for broken links/deleted video/mixes etc but please let us know if anything seems wonky or missing
Please note: this covers the 1991 festival, here are links to the 1990 and 1992 festivals of the same name.
Here are (possibly different versions of) the tunes Tim Acid and Dunk mentioned hearing at this party (see comments):
And here’s something one commenter just mentioned:
Here’s a picture and some quotes from Andy Brown’s wonderful but hard to find book ‘Rave: The Spiritual Dimension’. If anyone else has anything to add about this, please send it in
In 1991, the festival was 5 miles further north along the A3 and the turnout was even higher at a cool 12,000… Torpedo Town 1991 mushroomed into existence on a Friday night, grew at a phenomenal rate for all of Saturday, sustained itself through Sunday and then, on account of an M.O.D. injunction, had completely disappeared by Tuesday, except of course for the burned out wreck of a coach which looked like a crashed spaceship. The land itself was I think a M.O.D. common, mainly scrub trees and grass with broken, disused tarmac roads. When we first arrived on the Friday night things were a bit quiet so we took it easy. We parked up in a lane thing and pitched our tents right near. To start off with there were hardly any tents but things didn’t stay that way for long. As more people arrived, a right of way formed through our piece or real estate. What had been a hardly used path through the ferns when we arrived, was now one of the main routes for ravers collecting firewood from the forest. What had happened was that the quiet suburbs which were quite near to the dancefloors had turned into prime sites. Anyway, we had a good spot so we weren’t bothered. At its peak, the city had streets, all heaving with bright eyed happy people, so many that sometimes the paths were so completely rammed with bodies that you couldn’t move at all. This festival really was a city and it even had its own booming economy. I don’t think I need to say what were the main commodities but just as in any established city, you could buy anything you wanted from food to clothes- even a haircut. I was so happy, I cannot stress that too much, really, really, really good times. The totally awesome atmosphere generated at these festivals can be overwhelming… It no exaggeration that once experienced, these festivals can change your life.
UPDATE 26.5.21: A new newspaper clipping has emerged from the ether, thanks a million Stuart!
UPDATE 18.3.11: Most commenters are saying this was pre-Castlemorton,and we just noticed a reference to Lechlade (misspelled as Lechale) being the previous weekend in this newspaper article, so we’ve changed the title. If anyone can confirm the date, please let us know in the comments! Thanks
Eric sent us this clipping from the paper. Nice one
A mate of ours remembers that the police turned up at some point to try and shut it down, realised it was too big to stop, and buggered off again …
Here’s some more memories:
a guy pulled a gun on someone and spiral stopped the music and said that it wasn’t on, so get the fuck out of here.. all the ravers boo’d the gun guy until he had no choice but to leave.
music back on, party continued.
it was a pretty crazy party all told. getting there was quite a mission as well, climbing up that hill. I think the soundsystem caught fire at the beginning, or some wires did anyway. and then eventually it all kicked off. great place to see the sunrise as well.
edit: also pretty funny to see people walking their dogs in the morning. what must they have thought!
Does anyone have an exact date for this? Or any more detailed memories?
Very wonky ketamine, sooper speeding into space on a stormy boat. Mental muddy. So stringy Tai Chi movements, seriously who am I and do I care – whose anyone? Just move like this it’s ace.
Lying in the boot of X’s mum’s car; the rain lashing down; hard distorted techno coming out of the sound system, everyone on ketamine. Feeling like we were in a rocket rushing through a space storm. In the morning saw loads of K heads dancing on their knees in the mud and the DJ (Diola?) playing some Hawaiian steel guitar as the rain continued to pour down.
Here’s a report from an anonymous commenter:
The weather was so awful I think we ended up spending most of the party squashed up in someone’s car, getting to know new people who had clambered into the boot! I’m still friends with one of them today, by the way. Ketamine had become quite popular, and the combination of a rainy, muddy, windswept picnic area, wobbly, up for it party people, and nosebleed techno added up to a pretty loopy party. I, too, remember seeing people dancing to Hawaiian steel guitar music on their knees in the mud as it was getting light, and exhortations (maybe on the mic) from someone trying to get us to dance rather than cower in our cars. It was always risky to bring your rig out so it must have been disappointing to have made the effort only to be rewarded with the site of load of cars parked up, still with their passengers inside. I blame the weather. And the K, to some extent, but in those days K was cheap and new and fun, and, had the weather been better there would have been heaps of us wobbling about on the dancefloor. There were parties, too, though, even early in the nineties, where people really had overdone it on K and were lying around semicomatose. Not really an up for it happening party crew! I have the same feelings about GBL/GHB abuse. Anyway, at this early stage, K was fun, and made you feel like a drunk, happy, chatty robot. I can’t remember anything alse apart from was a confusing ketamised visit to the loo (er, not a loo as such but a very steep slope covered with nettles). Happy days.
We now think we have the correct dates for this event, but apparently there was a second party weekend at that same location the next weekend i.e. Saturday 9th, can anyone confirm? Cheers
Someone who was with the rig told us it was definitely 1992, only took us about 10 years to figure out this little riddle!
UPDATE 14/03/21:
From a comment on another party, thankyou Rorz Merton!:
“Bedlam’s started on Thurs Evening, 31st, continued until Sat afternoon. Switched off for a couple of hours for checks. Back on. Continued until Monday morning.
I was doing the door when 4 (3 male, one female) “ravers” came in – got a fiver each off them – with whistles round their necks and holding glowsticks. Each was holding onto the shoulders of the one in front.
Must have been undercover plod. Because 5 mins later, they came out with a look of utter terror on their faces.
It was rammed in there, and it was manic, hardcore, London Underground Acid tekno. One of the Liberators must have been playing because I was dancing for all of Murph’s set and he played for five hours after those three had finished.
The vibe was so strong that you’d be tripping even if you’d never taken anything.
The fuzz looked totally off it.
There was one mugging. Suddenly the music stopped and a voice came over the sound system: “You don’t know me, mugger. But my name’s Pebbles and I’m a bit of a devil, and when I find you, mugger, you’re dead,”
Banging bassline comes in, with people chanting for his death. Bit like Lord of the Flies.
No more mugging after that. They must have all legged it.”
A fellow freepartyperson told us about this Bedlam party in an old library in Bromley.
“I was 16 and that was one of my first free parties! The whole calling the number from a phone box and going on a wild goose chase that involved walking alongside a dual carriageway was new to me! It was amazing though. A huge open room with very high ceilings and a very happy time.” She can remember is that it was quite derelict with a load of offices upstairs, and that she saw Lol Hammond (Drum Club) there.
This is what the building looks like nowadays, although much less squished ;D so open in a new window to see it in all its glory:
Does anyone have any (no matter how scatty) memories about this? Leave a comment!
I missed Castlemorton but I believe everyone who says it was wicked. Interesting that dr_box (see below) mentioned the police herding him onto the common, people often forget that the travellers and soundystems were pushed/chased there by the cops. By the way, if anyone has exact dates for this please let us know, we know it’s quoted as going on for 6 days, but we need some sort-of-facts!
Interesting query from Hardcore Bob in the comments: the Techno Travellers (who we’ve now added to the headline) had their rig in the blue and red marquee, so which other rigs were there, and which tents were they in? Let us know in the comments
Thanks!
UPDATE 23/1/21:
From Ian Young, It’s Not About Me! Confessions Of A Recovered Outlaw Addict- From Living Hell To Living Big. Norwich: Anoma Press, 2013, p.59-60.
We came across three longish (slightly chewed) VHS videos of Castlemorton free festival recently. Thanks a million to youtuber discodelinquent (great name by the way!) for uploading them. Discodelinquent has also uploaded some footage from Sugarlump parties. We’ll probably do a post on Sugarlump sound system sooner or later… Meanwhile, enjoy these videos:
Here’s a quote about Castlemorton from ‘Adventures In Wonderland’ by Sheryl Garratt:
Mr Arm (you know who you are!) let us scan a load of newspaper cuttings from his scrapbook. Big up! :
The following photo was captioned “Festivalgoers on Castlemorton Common yesterday, enjoying the sound of music in the Malvern Hills”.
The following photo was captioned “Common nuisance: The 20,000 hippies encamped at Castlemorton common yesterday”.
A classic headline:
Click on images for larger versions:
The following picture and article appeared with the headline: “Villagers threaten to burn out hippies -An illegal festival in the Malverns has driven people living near the site to breaking point”
Continuation of article above, click on image below for larger version:
The following article and photo appeared together:
Here are a couple of videos, the first one’s been online for ages, the second one’s newer and includes some footage taken near the spiral rig-
Thanks youtuber Yangow for the first vid, and thanks youtuber hemustbemad for uploading the second (he credits his friend Matt with filming).
Old friend Simon M was there, and he sent us this page from his diary:
The photos below are from George McKay‘s book ‘Senseless Acts of Beauty’ and I believe they were taken by Alan ‘Tash’ Lodge (whose excellent website you can find in the links on the right hand side of our main page.
The Riddler (who has a great site, well worth a browse), has some pics of castlemorton here:
Castle Morton was an experience.. I’d been visiting a mates place in East London and he was coming over to mine in the depths of West Wales afterwards. we’d heard that there was a festi down near Bristol that weekend, so set off on the hunt along the M4. At one of the service stations along the M4 we got a lift from a Green godess fire engine that was loaded down with kit and Hippies, it was one of the vehicles spiral tribe was using to get to the festival. As we got close we found out that the festival might not be on, so set off on a hunt. the police herded us up to Castle Morton, by the time we got close there were several miles of trucks and busses full of people. At one point the line stopped and a guy with us got out and started counting vehicles as he walked towards the front. when the line started moving again, he waited for us to catch up. he’d counted over seven hundred vehicles, and he hadn’t reached the front of the line.
When we got there, the sun was setting and from the hills overlooking the site you could see the site starting to pulse with light and hear blasts of sound as things were set up. Travelling off all the way to the horizon there was a ribbon of headlights delivering more people to the festival.
Blinding weekend, my mate had his first E experience, Watched the police try and drive through the centre of the crowd. they got stopped in the middle, and a nameless longhair got passed over the crowd, and started selling Acid off the bonnet of the police car. after futilely attempting to get out of the car the plod ended up just laughing at the sheer balls of him.
Nighttime had more than its fair quota of low flying helicopters with spotlights. (although someone did take a potshot at them with a firework)
And here’s a party report from an anonymous contributor. Thanks, whoever you are!
It was a beautiful location, but there was 12 hours of driving and loads of calls to the hotline before we even had proper directions, let alone arrived! We were listening to Levitation, The Cardiacs and Butthole Surfers to keep us awake. Out of the darkness on a Welsh mountain road in the arse end of the arse end of nowhere a shape loomed towards us, and the driver braked sharply. It was just a paralytic local on his way back from a pub spilling off his antiquated bicycle and headfirst onto the tarmac. We were worried, and asked if he was OK. He clambered back on, grunted, and cycled off into the gloom.
Eventually we had to give up, and had a couple of hours of very uncomfortable sleep in a layby in the car (3 of us in a mini metro, a gearstick poking me in the ribs).
In the morning we were aching, but the weather was beautiful and we’d already decided that if we couldn’t find the party we’d take our pills and go for a walk. We finally got proper directions at 7 am or thereabouts. After driving through some deep valleys carpeted with thick forests, we stopped the car for my friend to get out for a pee. Two minutes later she came rushing back -‘I can hear it! I can hear it!’, after hours of uncertainty and confusion we arrived at the party at 8 or 9 am. A seemingly purpose-built dancefloor (actually a ruined building- part of a disused leadmine) on the side of a slate mountain with a waterfall over to the right. There was a river running past, parallel to the road that ran through the valley.
When we arrived we realised we needed something for ‘breakfast’. We started with Love Hearts and followed these up with some Special K.
Tired after the journey we spent a stupid amount of time in the car. This often happened back then, you’d travelled MILES with your friends to be in this special place and then, fuck it, let’s just stay in our mobile chill out room.
We were listening to Special K (an old house tape) in the car, and I remember attracting one or two curious stares because of this. Even then, things were quite polarised- you liked house OR techno. We liked both, which confused people.
A pair of girls knocked on the car window. They were tripping enormously and pointing to a piece of sheet music and gibbering at us through the window.
Sometimes, in certain states of mind, time seems to fuck up and start looping. At one stage there were about 5 of us sat in this tiny mini metro, so fucked that all we could do was sigh. This was all that could be heard for a while: ‘Ffffffffffff. Pshhhhhhhh. Phoooooooo! Ffffffffffff. Pshhhhhhhh. Phoooooooo!’
This was what passed for conversation in the old days. Then there was a new sound ‘Ffffffffffff. Pshhhhhhhh. Phoooooooo! Fwap. OW! Ffffffffffff. Pshhhhhhhh. Phoooooooo! Fwap. OW!’ The girl sat in the middle of the back seat was brushing her hair. Every time she brushed it, the brush twatted her neighbour in the head. It was a while before she realised and stopped.
We spent some time chilling out in/by the river.While we were sitting relaxing by the river, my mate, our driver for the weekend, heard the start of Aphex Twin’s ‘Didgeridoo’ and, without warning, sprinted back to the sound system.
Then, and this was something to do with the K, I had a very strong urge to climb the mountain (or at least get to the waterfall). I could feel, and this sounds weird, I’m sure, an invisible thread pulling me upwards. The mountainside was covered in loose slate and so it would have been a bit hairy even if you were straight. God knows how I managed it, but I reached the height of the waterfall. However, I’d gone slightly off course and the waterfall was now too far away for me to reach. I looked down. Mistake. I realised that if I wanted to get through this in one piece I would have to continue going upwards. I reached the top and noticed a gentler slope to take me back to where the party was. On my way down I walked into a field full of sheep. I could see a farmer in a Range Rover in a field below me, and I didn’t want him to see me so I sat on the ground and kept still for a couple of minutes. That was when I realised that the field I was sitting on was covered in clover and there seemed to be millions of bees everywhere. I carried on staying very still for quite some time. The farmer had left and the bees weren’t attacking me so I carried on down the slope. I reached the main road and had to walk a little way back to the party. I passed a lone Welsh country copper and gave him a cheery ‘hello’. Arriving back at the party I saw my friends, who had last seen me disappear up a mountain a couple of hours previously. They’d been worried, and I was oblivious to this.
On the way home one of the fluffed up casualties co-piloting the car insisted the vehicle be stopped and they be let out immediately so they could leap into a field and hug a lamb. I think the lamb ran away.
More unseen images from. Jamie, thanks once again!
UPDATE 12/8/21:
An unseen image from our new favourite photographer, Jamie:
UPDATE 13/3/21:
Here is another video, no view of rigs this time but there is a glimpse of the bouncy castle! Thanks Youtube user youmustbemad!
And a fourth and fifth video, this time edited news reports, thank you again Youtuber Tizmip for these!
We stumbled across these great videos. Thanks a million to youtube user tonyeade who filmed (?) and uploaded it Mark (see comment below) reckons this was Spiral’s rig, but there comments on the youtube page which reckon Spiral’s had been confiscated and this was Bedlam and/or DiY. What do you lot reckon? We’re looking for a list of which other rigs were in attendance. It was in 1992, so no worries if it’s all a bit hazy
Amino Clang was there, and here’s his report:
I was staying with my Dad, his partner and her son (who is my age and an old friend of the family too) in Dorset when we heard that there was a festi just down the road in a tiny place called Smeatharpe so, totally unprepared and with no way of getting there, us kids set off to see how far we could get with nothing more than a thumb and a burning need to get there in our inventory.
We managed to get a lift quite easily, but unfortunately the driver wasn’t going far and he dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. Too far down the road to get home, too far away from the party to walk… and then it started to get dark.
Luckily, just as dread was setting in, a VW campervan stopped for us and when we got in the inhabitants said “You look like you’re going where we are going! Do you know where it is?”
We knew that it was at Smeatharpe air strip, but didn’t really know where that was so a phone call from a payphone, a look at the map and couple of wrong turns later we made it onto the site and said our goodbyes to our saviours before bouncing off into the throng.
I love that feeling you get when you finally find the party you have tried so hard to get to. The people looning about, the lights in the sky, maybe a glimpse of some local coppers, but always that unmistakeable boom-boom-boom of a sound system, or even better – that distant fairground sound of people talking mixed with a selection of sound systems churning out allsorts of sounds from all directions. It turns into a cacophony of chaotic noise that I suppose most people would find offensive, but I just love it. Just writing about it now is making me feel all cosy and comfortable, like somebody has draped a warm blanket over my shoulders. Aaaahhhh!
Anyway – I digress…
Back at the party we did a quick tour of the site and soon worked out that there was at least three or four sound systems, some louder than others, but all banging it out to a crowd of happy up-for-it people. There was also a whole lot of UV backdrops, a whole lot of vehicles (both ‘omes and ravemobiles), a bouncy castle, one of those NASA gyroscope things, a TV showing movies, a bar in a double-decker bus, a t-shirt stall and the obligatory selection of dealers shouting “Hash for Cash!”, “Acid, Exctacy!”, “Speed, whiz”, “Mushies, trips!”, etc. (and there really was a bloke shouting “Hash for leather jacket!”).There was even a smallish campervan for sale. I swear you could buy absolutely anything at a free festi in ’92 if you looked hard enough.
Anyway – I digress…
We had been there a while and had not bumped into anybody we knew yet so we bought a “pill” off some girl and split it (the last of our money gone now). I don’t think it worked very well though because my memory of Smeatharpe is pretty vivid. Eventually we plucked up our courage and asked the MC at the biggest rig to get one of our friends to come to the decks so we could meet up with him. Unfortunately the mate in question was a bit worse for wares and thought they wanted him to play a set so he ran away instead!
We continued to wander about looking for somebody we knew – they had to be here somewhere – when suddenly… I noticed a car that I recognised from my hometown in Wales (where I lived with my Mum), and there leaning up against it was one of my friends from up there. I went over to say hello, but he looked a bit wobbly and was trying to lean on the car. It turns out that he had spilled a bottle of poppers on himself and was struggling to stay conscious. Anyway, he started to come round and told me that my oldest friend (it’s a long story, but we met before we were born and have been friends ever since) was in the van he had just fallen out of. This was excellent news of course and the three of us spent the rest of the night bouncing about the party together (there may have been some speed involved at some point?). Here are some of the things I remember:
1. I remember meeting a lovely couple of ravers on the bouncy castle and discussing the pro’s and con’s of going to see The Lawnmower Man in the cinema on acid.
2. I remember doing a bit of juggling with my glow-in-the-dark juggling balls in front of a sound system with a particularly large collection of UV backdrops and a UV light playing more ambient tunes than the other systems.
3. I remember one system was almost all treble while another system was almost all bass.
4. I remember sitting on top of a BIG van/truck type traveller vehicle in the morning watching the ravers in front of the biggest system beneath us. If you squinted your eyes a little bit it looked like the crowd was moving in a steady circle around a point in the middle of the dance floor. This is kind of difficult to explain but it had us all really impressed at the time.
5. I remember seeing some traveller kids ragging about the place on bikes being naughty and taking the piss out of the ravers when the sun came up.
Eventually we found some of our friends from Dorset too and the morning panned out very nicely – chilling out in the sun smoking temple balls with a big bunch of friends at a huge party that showed no signs of slowing down. What more could you ask for?
Time passes and we started to get hungry and tired so we decided that it would be a good idea to say our goodbyes and try to get home. We started the long walk towards the nearest town with our thumb out hoping that somebody would be leaving at the same time. We did get picked up… by a crazed scally driving a stolen car! When he saw the police (who had parked up nearby) he sped up and told us he would let us out as soon as he got away from the police. We smiled politely, thanked him for the lift (and thanked god that we were still alive) and continued to walk through country lanes trying to find a sign of civilisation. God knows how we did it, but we did manage to get home eventually.
So we’re sitting back at home chilling out, smoking more temple balls, resting up and feeding up, watching a bit of telly and getting ready for a good sleep after last night’s adventures, when the parents come in from work (they ran a restaurant) with one of the staff from the restaurant, totally pissed up and raring to go off to “The Rave” to see the sites and embarrass their kids. The guy who worked in the restaurant was sober so we all piled into the car and off we went – once more unto the breach…
By the time we got there is was dark again and there weren’t quite as many people, but the party was still going strong. The parents managed to find themselves some pills and got well and truly! I don’t know if you have ever done a pill (a good ’92 pill) when you are already pissed up, but it knocks you for six, and knock them for six it did.
The resounding memory for me is watching my Dad fall over shouting “Yeah Baby!”, but there are other memories from night two at Smeatharpe Free Festival…
1. I remember that Spiral Tribe had set up a sound system that I had not noticed on the first night and I was having a bit of a dance when this bloke comes over (clearly rushing himself) and started dancing around me saying “Rush, rush, rush, rush…). Well it worked – I really started to come up on the pill we had split (this one worked) and then we spiralled off to investigate the rest of the party again.
2. I remember walking about the site between sound systems and noticing that the music from each system was mixing perfectly with the next. Just as one would fade out, the next would fade in and the tunes were always perfectly beat-matched. Probably my imagination, but pretty cool nonetheless!
3. I remember trying to find our parents’ car and going right up to it and looking in the window and everything, but still not recognising it. We soon realised that we had been looking at the right car when we were ready to go and the driver walked right up to the car we had been looking at and unlocked it!
Time passed, and it all got a bit too much for The Olds so we went home with smiles on our faces and warmth in our hearts.
But the story of Smeatharpe does not finish there either…
TEN YEARS later I was living in Exeter with my girlfriend when I got a phone call from another friend who told me to switch on the local news. There it was again – Smeatharpe Free Festival had returned and it was only down the road again!
We immediately jumped in the car, met up with our friends and headed up to the party (thank fuck for the local press). We had to park a little way from the site because the police (with some help from the local farmer) had blocked every road up to it (not like in the old days!), but we managed to find a way through a hedge, into some fields, dart across the main road past the police and run onto the site with our heads down and our hearts racing.
This blog is all about free parties from 1990 – ’94 so I will just give a brief account of this night:
1. There were more sound systems, but less people at Smeatharpe 2002. This seems to be a bit of a theme for modern Free Festivals – the sound system has become the ultimate party accessory.
2. The musical spectrum was wider at Smeatharpe 2002. There was a house system, a selection of techno systems, a selection of DnB systems, a cocktail bar playing disco and there was even a ska/punk band playing live on a makeshift stage stuck between two pretty big sound systems.
3. Some moron almost ran us over in their white van at Smeatharpe 2002. This same van had been caught on film as they rammed their way through a gate past a local news reporter to get onto the site (clever boys!)
4. The atmosphere was still havin’ it and happy at Smeatharpe 2002, but I gotta say it – they don’t do ‘em like they used to.
5. I was older and wiser at Smeatharpe 2002. We drove there and back in a comfortable car, no need to hitch, no need to search for the site (although there was the obligatory stop to get out of the car and listen out for the bass line echoing across the valley), no parents to look after and we met up with our friends before getting on site.
6. The press were not impressed with Smeatharpe 2002. They reported that the site had been left in appalling condition with loads of burned out cars and rubbish left lying about everywhere, not to mention all the raver poo creating an environmental health hazard. Funnily enough I had taken my girlfriend up to see the site of Smeatharpe Free Festival ’92 only a week or so earlier and the air strip had been used as a stock car racing track for quite some time – it was covered in burned out cars, tyres and oil tins and it was an absolute shite-heap. The worst footage the press could get was of the burned out white van left by those same dickheads who had tried to run us over at the party. The shot panned across the wasteland of the air strip to see other burned out cars, burned out tires and a nice neat pile of bin bags that had been left by the ravers who generally like to leave a site cleaner than they found it.
Also, someone I don’t know, but probably unknowingly danced right next to at a few parties sent me this report on the 1992 Smeatharpe Free Festival… Thanks mharridge!!
After missing Castlemorton because ‘I didn’t think it would be that big and another would come along and I’d already said I’d work..’I was determined to make it to my first free festival. I’d leaked the secret to a couple of mates from the next town (Leamington) who seemed keen and also would help supply the main ingredient. So, off the 5 of us set sometime Friday evening after making various ‘doctor calls’ around town. We arrived on site at Smeatharpe airfield, Devon, to a police prescence who happily waved us through. Not that I had a sweat on mind with the whole cars stash tucked under the carpet in my footwell of my mate’s Cavalier.
It was dark when we arrived so I don’t remember much other than all night merry making but i do remember watching aeroplanes soaring high above in the clear blue morning sky.
It turns out that one of our friends from Leamington had taken a funny turn and was asking to be taken back home.. After a quick pow-wow we decided it would be ok and we set off on the 2/3 hour drive. After dropping our 3 friends off in Leamington we spent the rest of the day hanging around the pub and telling our mates about where we’d been.
It happened that an older crowd were headed down that evening so being as we knew where the site was we asked if we could tag along. This time I jumped in my mates camper van and again after a variety of pitstops we were off. Again arriving in the pitch black and after getting lost among country lanes we eventually found the site again. A couple of us had scored some acid and I’d bought some more speed. I wasnt an E convert by this time and was sticking to amphetamines and acid. However, how I’d wished I had bought an E as I spent most of the night in a jittery state inside my mates van – though it was fun.
The morning soon came around and drawing back the curtains of the camper van we saw an increasing ring of black uniforms – oh dear The police cordon got tighter and tighter so we moved the van nearer to the last remaining system playing. This was my first experience of Spiral Tribe. Picture the scene – mid Sunday afternoon in blazing summer sunshine, people dancing on top of vehicles to twisted acid techno, lots of dust around – or maybe thats just me. Not sure I’ll ever be able to forget that.
More on this party from Dougie, who left us this comment on our ‘about’ page:
I remember going to a festi near Honiton on an old air field, I seem to remember Spiral Tribe were there but cannot seem to find anything out about it. Does any body out there know any more about it. It was big and chaotic and i think there was a mini riot when babylon tried to shut it down.
And a couple more of Jamie’s images from Lechlade. And a memory:
nice to know you were at Lechlade too, we stayed until Sunday too, it was a good mayhem!! I think I stayed in bed for about a week after that one
UPDATE 11/8/21:
Jamie (whose images can also be found in the Roundway Hill post) also sent us these from Lechlade, thanks a million!
Hello Graudian readers! Thanks for visiting, but thanks to a mistake on this page, this isn’t the page you’re looking for! Click here for the Castlemorton Common free festival page. Cheers!
Update 8/6/21:
Although we recently heard that Fun-de-mental were there no-one has confirmed so we removed them. We never came across them in our limited wanderings, which doesn’t really mean much, so anyone confirm that they were there, either as part of a bigger rig or on their own? Thanks!
No idea [how we heard about it]. But I think the original information I had was that it was going to be in Hungerford and possibly put on by an organisation called Asylum? Think we left from Bridport. We would have got details of the location along the way but who from I don’t know. Did we have a number to call? We might have seen fellow ravers at a petrol station, and as we got closer to the site we would have joined a convoy of cars.
[We got there] early evening. First impressions were how huge it was; cars and traveller vehicles everywhere. We were worried about there being so many police but when I wound down my window to speak to one all he wanted to tell me was where to park. …how busy it was, and how loud it was and as we approached the first sound system it got more and more intense and people looked more and more gaunt like they’d been drugged up and dancing for hours.
I seem to remember D taking me off around the site trying to score and we ended up sharing a joint with some people in the back of their Luton van. They had turntables and it was decked out like a chill out room. I got the feeling they were posh travellers. Nice though.
I do remember spending most of our time at Circus Warp. Best music, best decor, best vibe. I’ve got written down that I had a Roobarb & Custard, Black Sun (acid?) and a gram of speed.
I seem to remember dancing a lot, mostly at Circus Warp. I think I had my spy sunglasses on, with mirrors in the sides so you could see behind you, but while dancing and nodding your head it gave a really good extra dimension to the rhythm of dancing. I also remember dancing on my own and I kept thinking I was seeing people I knew but when I went up to them it wasn’t who I thought it was. I remember seeing some very straight looking people dancing and figured out they were probably locals from Lechlade, come down to see what all the fuss was about and decided to stay and party.
Can’t remember any actual tunes at Circus Warp but they played excellent breakbeat the whole time. In the morning Spiral played Digeridoo and there was a very nutty looking guy who looked high as a kite flinging his arms in the air to the beat.
Was it at Lechlade that there was the guy in orange trousers and floppy hat dancing on the roof of a van grinning and pointing at people and dancing in the most funky way? Someone on freepartypeople must know who he is.
We spent quite a lot of time in the car listening in amazement as the Orbital remixes seemed to ricochet around the inside of the car. I did my usual of spending what seemed like hours trying to roll a joint, only to find the papers were the wrong way round. Felt drugged up to the eyeballs, unable to move and had to wait until things got less intense before we could venture back outside.
[On the Sunday morning] I think we saw some very out of it travellers get into car (off on a Brew mission I think) and somehow drove it around people and tents and other cars through the field without hitting a thing.
I don’t remember any tension [between travellers and ravers], but I do remember seeing a traveller lying in the field in front of the Spiral sound system and a raver going to shake his hand and trying to lift him up. The raver was putting everything into lifting up the traveller and the traveller, in his blissed out state was remaining on the grass and in my mind it turned into a struggle between urban and rural, manufactured and organic, intensity and indifference.
Probably drove back Sunday afternoon/evening. I expect we didn’t have a huge amount to say to eachother. We were probably listening to some more mellow music, Special K perhaps, rolling lots of joints and looking forward to gettting home and getting some sleep.
Update 23/1/21:
From Ian Young, It’s Not About Me! Confessions Of A Recovered Outlaw Addict- From Living Hell To Living Big. Norwich: Anoma Press, 2013, p.59-60.
Here are a couple of news reports about this party. Thanks again to faithful contributor Mr. Clang for the tip, and Youtuber Spaceweed23 for the upload!
Here’s a report from someone who wishes to remain anonymous:
A disused quarry in Gloucestershire was the venue for this 8,000/10,000/15,000-strong free technofesty blowout. Who counts the numbers anyway ;P If it was based on the number of cars it would be an underestimate- 4 people per car was the absolute minimum those days. Police estimates are always ALWAYS under (for obvious reasons), especially at ‘oppositional’ events e.g. free unlicensed 3-day festivals, reclaim the streets etc. demonstrations.
This pic of Lechlade featured in an article in Select magazine:
Missed Castlemorton due to leaving my brain at Lechlade. A long drive up. I think we got the location of the party from the news reports:
When we arrived we had a jittery moment because the police stopped our car on the way in. FFFFFFffffUUUUUCCCCkkkkk! Oh no, it’s OK, they’re just telling us where to park, politely. A few metres away a dealer was standing in the middle of the road bellowing “Rhubarb and Custards! Callies!”
I think the big white tent in the pics above was DiY’s but I don’t remember there being a rig in there at this do.
This blue and orange marquee in the pic above was Circus Warp’s. I also remember a load of far out UV stuff dangling from the roof of their tent, including bicycle wheels. Also a mad max robot and some red/orange speakers too:
A fantastic atmosphere but there was a little friction between the hippies and the ravers- heard a few expensively dressed ravers getting harangued by the crusties: “OOOOOooooh dress to IMPRESS!”. Oh yeah, and someone laughed at my hat. I deserved it for sure
Other sights and sounds:
Flinching at the sheer excessive volume of the beat coming from the Spiral system in the blazing sunlight on Sunday morning, when we felt particularly fragile.
A brew crew/keta/acid/whatever casualty rolling around on the ground trying to scratch the tattoo off his arm.
A bunch of well-spoken but off-their-tits Oxford medical students who came and sat in our car, and jabbered with us for either 3 minutes or three hours.
A misty and gentle sunrise over one of the huge trout ponds (which, incidentally, contained huge trout).
Seeing some poor fucker who’d overdone it being carted away.
Finding a lost crusty puppy.
Taking photos of ourselves and the next week wondering what the nice girl in Boots thought was wrong with our faces in the pictures. The aftermath:
It was even mentioned in the Commons:
Sir David Mitchell (Hampshire, North-West) :
I noticed that on the spring bank holiday about 30,000 people attended a pop festival at Lechlade in Gloucestershire, and if more itinerants and hippies come to my constituency in the pre-solstice period, the noise disturbance, the petty crime and the filth that they will leave behind will cause my constituents great anxiety.
also
On 21 June, the summer solstice arrives and large numbers of hippies, itinerants and new-age travellers can be expected. Some of my constituents call them by names that cannot be expressed in parliamentary language.
A couple of news videos, thanks to god old Webm8.co.uk, who have been documenting this scene for as long (or longer) as we have!
A comment from Jamie pointed to the fact that there’s was nothing on here about the 1991 event in Stroud. This is what he said:
a truely epic warehouse free party in Stroud Sept 21st 1991 when 8000 ravers crashed into town and rocked the old Great mills
Big thanks to Matt for sending us this flyer:
DJ Tone was there, and his comment can be seen below. He also sent us newspaper cuttings from the party, thanks Tony!
Here’s a transcript of the article:
Convoy of cars thwart police efforts to halt event at warehouse
Thousands rave it up at illegal party
Thousands of young people drove up to 300 miles in convoys to a disused South Cotswold warehouse for what was described as the last of the summer raves.
By 1am yesterday morning they had thwarted police efforts to halt an illegal pay party despite reports that one was being organised.
The sheer speed with which locations can be chosen and sound systems set up by rave organizers meant that by the time police learned of the location at the Salmon Sheds industrial estate, at Pitchcombe, the warehouse and surrounding area were crowded.
As people danced to booming noise inside the warehouse, a separate public address system kept hundreds of others dancing in the car park after the party started.
Complaints
Police set up roadblocks to check all vehicles travelling towards the Stroud area and turned away hundreds of late arrivals.
Gloucestershire police superintendent Ken Mahon, based at Stroud, said “We got there quickly but by the time we arrived it was already going on. It was a question of containment.”
Hospitals, fire and ambulance crews in the county were put on stand-by for injuries.
“We had in excess of 20 complaints from the public, about noise and the large numbers of vehicles driving around the area,” said Supt. Mahon.
Sixty-six people were arrested and a number of items including drugs and a sound system were seized.
Police officers drafted in from across the county but let it continue until its close at 7pm last night.
Many of those attending defended the rave, saying they were simply enjoying themselves.
Helen Thornton, 21, travelled from Milton Keynes in a convoy of 50 cars.
“We knew there was a rave somewhere near Oxford. That was it, and everybody found their own way down here.” she said.
And 24-year-old Steve Adams, from Cheltenhman said: “The attraction is there are no rules or boundaries.”
There was a follow-up article the following spring with the following headline:
This Circus Warp party happened on Cholsey Downs. Some reckon it was around Halloween, anyone remember a more precise date? No worries if not. Here are a couple of anonymous ravers’ memories, do they ring any bells and do you have any more memories or photos of your own to add? Thank you from the bottom of our raver hearts
they were at chosley in the late summer or autumn, it was up a long track that was blocked with cars and cars parked across the road in a field,and the police and farmer were moving cars, I knew the area and pulled a lot away afrom the entrance nd we drove in from a back way
Track was rammo. Lost my bottle and left as I was in a work truck and couldn’t risk it getting pulled or towed…I went to a party Cholsey downs autumn 91. Couldn’t tell you who threw it as I only started in Sept that year and didn’t know who was who at that time. Went back in the daytime and OB at the bottom of the track warned me that a “pay party” was going off. Oh, I said, I’ve just come over to walk my dog, I’ll take my chances ta…. Drive up and stayed a few more hours…..
Matthew Collin’s take on Kthe festival, from his brilliant Altered State:
From Matthew Collin, Altered State: The Story Of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2009, p.235.
Here is a newspaper article published on the Tuesday after the festival:
Daily Telegraph 27/7/92
Police order hippies to leave Welsh farmland
THOUSANDS of hippies who invaded Welsh farmland for an illegal weekend “festival” wereordered to leave last night, writes A J Mcllroy.
Senior police officers served notice on behalf of the owner of the hilltop site at Kerry, near Newtown, Powys, opening the way for police action to clear the site if the order is ignored. The message was broadcast by loudspeaker to the estimated 8,000 travellers from a hovering helicopter.
A Dyfed-Powys police spokesman said the hippies were asked to leave “as soon as is reasonably possible”.
He added: “We have to give preliminary notice under Section 39 of the Public Order Act and we are satisfied that has now been done.” The atmosphere was described by officers as “peaceful”.
Earlier, police confiscated two large sound systems before they could be driven on to the Kerry site and more than 70 people have so far been arrested, mainly for drug offences and for having defective vehicles. Mr Stanley Pugh, owner of Oak Farm, on whose land the new age travellers are encamped, is taking advice over a separate civil court action after packs of roaming dogs allegedly killed or mutilated 20 of his sheep.
Earlier yesterday, police and farmers set up road blocks to stop thousands more hippies joining those already encamped for the Happy Daze Free Festival. It was rumoured that 5,000 were converging on the area, including some from a “rave party” at CastleDonington, Leics.
Local landowners used tractors, earth moving equipment and bales of hay to block roads and entrances to other farms, Some sprayed fields with manure to deter trespassers.
Here’s a flyer we picked up there:
Here’s a review by an anonymous raving reporter:
Wales again- another marathon drive. Waiting around with a massive crowd of other ravers at a service station as people took it in turns calling the info line on one payphone. Must have looked quite a sight.. Eventually found out where it was and set off. It must have been an overnight journey as I remember it being light when we got there. We saw a police roadblock ahead. There was gravel piled across the road. I remember some kind of pantomime with the cops where they couldn’t explicitly tell us not to go down the other road. So we went down the other road and found the party
We parked up outside the fence. I think that’s when my mate took this picture:
We were quite high up, right on top of a hill, and the site was quite small and muddy compared to Lechlade, the only other festival I’d been to at this stage. There were a couple of rigs there, though apparently there had been some confiscations which dampened the mood a bit. Luckily the people who took us to the party had brought a tent. A bit of lifesaver on this occasion, we spent a lot of time there.
Somewhere on this newspaper clipping taken from the front page of the local paper is our tent and the white Fiesta ravemobile
A friend of ours had walked from his hometown, and somehow managed to find us when he arrived on site. He said that he’d thought the party was ‘just over the hill’ but it turned out to be a longer expedition than he’d expected.
Once we were all ready we swallowed some huge browny grey biscuits. They were about the size of one of those big vitamin C tablets, and they supposedly contained mescaline. I know, it sounds like sales patter, but there was definitely something special in them. Things get a bit blurry for the next few hours.
One of our friends, who was quite tall, as it goes, was scared silly because a group of 3 or 4 even taller blokes appeared out of nowhere and proceeded to dance under the low canopy suspended over the sound system, their heads bobbing up and down and making random lumps and bumps in the makeshift tent. Although this isn’t scary in itself, add a liberal helping of bass-heavy gabba with samples such as ‘there is no planet earth, there is no planet earth’ and you have a severely frightened raver who is convinced that the aliens have come.
UPDATE 08/03/09: It was this timeless banger from Claude Young:
Last time it was solded on Discogs it reached £117, but there aren’t any copies on sale right now.
Shout outs to wheezer for id’ing it
At some stage the ground turned into bouncy muddy techno foam rubber.
I saw hidden codes written in the barcode on a Ribena packet.
There were, I think, 2 rigs but I think we were only hanging about at the Spiral affiliated one. I don’t even know if it was their own rig but I remember it was little.
Thinking about the music at that party, there were two things, or rather people- that really stood out, MC Scallywag and DJ Aztek. Aztek was playing a style I’d never heard before. Still not sure what it was (any ideas?) but it was hard and fast and gabberish. Scallywag on the other hand was just making up daft rhymes about ravers not leaving their turds all over the place (good point).
At some stage day turned to night and back to day and we were back in our tent drifting in and out of consciousness. The whole cycle started again on the Monday morning.
We bumped into someone we knew from Dorset who had enlisted in the brew crew. I had a half lucid conversation with him and then when I saw him in town a few weeks later he denied he had even been at the festival.
Halfway through the festival we wandered to the gate. There were a few journalists and cameramen hanging about and being berated by some angry travellers. When we finally reached home we made some tea, sat down, and turned the TV on. The party we had just been to was on the news. Not only that but we could be seen ambling around in the background. This festival was mentioned in the media because the DHSS had actually showed up to the festival to allow people to sign on on site. And at that time I expect there was a Daily Mail/Express/some politician expressing ‘outrage’ about mediaeval brigands &c &c
On the Tuesday (???? my memory’s not infallible you know!), the music was still going and there was a police helicopter circling. Some cop was blathering away over a megaphone, some nonsense about leaving the site, er, which we did.
Not long after we left the site we saw a police checkpoint up ahead. The driver decided that maybe we had to stop (maybe he had a guilty conscience!), but we urged him to drive on.
On the way back we stopped a couple of times for food- the first time was a little old ladies’ tearoom where we felt completely out of place after spending a weekend in another dimension. The second place was one of those fucking abysmal overpriced motorway service stations. We made the most of it though. Again we felt a little out of place. The most wrecked of us all spent some time transfixed by the weird spiral shaped Cumberland sausage on his plate.
I could post a well embarrassing pic of 2 of my fellow passengers, heads right back, gobs wide open, dead to the world leaning against each other all e-sleepy in the back of the car but A) I can’t find it, and B) it would only be amusing to about 10 people
UPDATE: Amino Clang, who walked from his hometown and spent the weekend raving with us, just sent me this account, THANKS LOADS!
This weekend all starts on the Saturday night when my Mum had decided that she would like to come along to a rave to see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately, our dog had “done a runner” and he didn’t get home until quite late so it was decided that we would not go to the rave tonight. I was supposed to be meeting up with some friends of mine who were going to give me a lift down to visit my Dad in Dorset and there was going to be a big bunch of my mates from Wales going too so I was not impressed with this decision but I was promised that we would go down there the next day instead. I didn’t sleep well that night. I just couldn’t wait to get there and meet up with my mates and get munted in front of a spirally sound system.
Sunday morning came and we all piled into the car to drive off to the festi. It was supposed to be in Kerry in South Wales and we lived in North Wales so we made an early start. Kerry was awash with coppers and the road up to the site was blocked. Not even my mum could persuade them to let us through, but when I explained that I had to “get up there to get a lift home” the copper in question said “I can’t just let you go through here, but if you walk around that way you might find another way though.”
I put my big backpack on my back, I had another bag in one hand (full of juggling equipment and water probably!) and I had another big bottle of water in my other hand. I said my goodbyes and off I went, on my own into the unknown!
An hour or so later I found myself on top a welsh mountain asking a group of dog-walking locals where the rave was because I needed to get there to catch my lift home. They pointed to the top of the hill on the other side of the valley and there, running across the horizon I caught my first glimpse of Happy Daze Free Festival, Kerry. With a new spring in my step I started the long walk down into the valley, through the woods and up the other side.
I-don’t-know-how-many-hours later I finally made it onto the site. Yeeeee Haw! My shoulders were killing me from carrying all my stuff, I had narrowly avoided a confrontation with a local farmer and his angry looking son, I was so fucked that a night of raving was the last thing I needed, but I had made it! Now I had to find my friends.
I did a couple of rounds of the site looking for somebody I recognised. I later discovered that all of my mates from Wales had gone home already and I guess everybody else was asleep following a hard night on the turf. Eventually I saw a car that I thought I recognised so I went closer to investigate. I was looking in the windows of the car to see if I recognised any of the stuff in it when this crusty came over. I am still not sure if he was serious or if he was checking me out but he was saying “Yea, go on mate, just smash the window and grab what you want. We could take it for a spin if you like…” etc. He wierded me out enough to walk away from the car and I was about to give up when one of my friends poked his head out of the tent next to the car and called me back. He said that he thought he had recognised my voice, but wasn’t sure. Yipeeeee! I had made it to the rave AND found my lift home – Happy Days!
Later that night our other friend (the driver) found us all some “Disco Biscuits” (they looked like somebody had drizzled chemicals into small biscuit shapes about the size of a penny and we were told that they were MDMA and mescalin, later experiments have lead me to believe that it was probably MDA – allow me to elaborate…) so we all dropped them together in the tent – the driver, his missus, two other close friends and me…
The next thing I remember is coming up like a demon had just jumped on my head and was beating my brain into submission. It was all I could do to clamp my jaw down on my wallet and scream my little head off! I was in the tent with just one of my friends (I guess the other three had gone for a stomp) and we were both beside ourselves with rushes.
A short while later the others came back into the tent (they had assumed we would be in a bit of a pickle if their state was anything to go by) and asked if we were OK – what with all the screaming and shouting and all that! We started to come round, but I asked the driver’s missus for a hug because I was so far gone (nothing funny like, just a friendly hug from a friend, please), and y’know what, it made things a bit easier. I strongly recommended my mate do the same so we all had hugs in the tent and then walked over to the Spiral Tribe Sound System for some dancing.
Dancing! Ha! Don’t make me laugh, I could barely stand up straight, never mind dance. Squishy field, wonky pills, gnarly techno, happy people. I think I went up and gave a dealer a hug at one point because she was doing such a service to society by spreading so much happiness (a view I still firmly believe – I mean, can you imagine a world where dealers didn’t provide some much needed escapism from the mundane modern world of working to pay the bills?). I also remember getting into quite a discussion with somebody who had lost their mate “Billy” and was asking if I had seen any of him – I just didn’t get it!
Later the next morning I was still awake with some other friends who I had met up with and I think we were talking with some Tribers because one of them was saying how the spiral is the best shape for a festi. “If all the vehicles,” he was saying “would park up in a big spiral with the rave in the centre, the police would never get in. You just park the last one in front of the entrance and leave them there – what could they do?”. He was not impressed with my suggestion that “It would be horrible if you were the first one here, but you had work on Monday morning though wouldn’t it?”
Well, later that day we had to start the long drive back to Dorset so we did another round of the site (stopping at the entrance, where there was now huge water containers) to fill up some bottles for the journey, and off we went.
A relatively uneventful drive home later and we were back home again (in my Dad’s place in Dorset) regaling my Dad with tales of the rave with the telly on in the background… when suddenly somebody shouted “OHMYGOD! It’s us on the news!”
We all turned to see the TV and there we were – leaning against the fence by the entrance to the festi, looking distinctly worse for wares, but right there on the national news! Funny how these things happen like that innit!
From Matthew Collin, Altered State: The Story Of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2009, p.227, 216, 217.
We stumbled across this video, quite sweet really. I reckon it must have been a few days into the party and no-one’s up for dancing any more, apart from some of the smallest ravers you’ve ever seen. Big ups to Jenzen23 for shooting and uploading this
We received the comments below from Suzi on the ‘What is this site all about?’ page. First of all, thanks a million for your short but sweet comments Suzi!
The August Bank Holiday weekend started on Friday 2nd August 1991. According to various sources the festy lasted 2 (!) weeks. But if anyone else has more accurate dates let me know. Also the sound systems in attendance were gleaned from the Wikipedia page on Spiral Tribe.
Who else can add to this?
Suzi’s comments:
Just discovered this site – brilliant! Went to most of the Festi’s from 91-92… most memorable:
Torpedo town ; Camelford 91, Lechlade 92, ; of course the one that will go down in history being Castlemorton 92 (proper lost it big time there!!). Not much here on Camelford 91, so here is my contribution:
Good Memory:
After getting lost on Bodmin Moor around 3am, following a 4 hour drive from Bournemouth, we stopped at a phone box (pre mobile days of course) to cheekily ask for directions from the local plod and they surprisingly obliged!
Bad Memory:
Discovering there were no trees when daylight broke, hence no discreet toilet facility, and having to walk for miles through a minefield of turds with a layer of pink toilet paper fluttering not so discreetly atop each mound, just to take a girl piss.
More comments on this party from Dougie. This is copied from his post on our ‘about’ page:
On my way to Cornwall from Yorkshire I picked up a couple of hitchhikers who where going to the White Goddess festi. It was about twenty miles out of my way but I thought fuck it I have bought them this far I might as well take them all the way there.Best thing I ever did!
Having decided to hang around and have a look I was soon gobbling down every thing on offer, mainly acid I seem to remember, and being there for the whole week. My first proper festi and what a way to start. Saying that it is all still a total blur but I just get that glowing warmth when ever I think about it.
The following is in the Spiral Tribe document on police harassment:
7.5.92
SELSLEY. STROUD, GLOS.
Public ordered off Live-in site after peaceful free party on adjacent common.
25 vehicles escorted: 30 miles out of county.
NO ARRESTS – NO CHARGE
A new newspaper clipping has emerged from the ether, thanks a million Stuart!
UPDATE 18.3.11: Most commenters are saying this was pre-Castlemorton,and we just noticed a reference to Lechlade (misspelled as Lechale) being the previous weekend in this newspaper article, so we’ve changed the title. If anyone can confirm the date, please let us know in the comments! Thanks
Eric sent us this clipping from the paper. Nice one
A mate of ours remembers that the police turned up at some point to try and shut it down, realised it was too big to stop, and buggered off again …
Here’s some more memories:
a guy pulled a gun on someone and spiral stopped the music and said that it wasn’t on, so get the fuck out of here.. all the ravers boo’d the gun guy until he had no choice but to leave.
music back on, party continued.
it was a pretty crazy party all told. getting there was quite a mission as well, climbing up that hill. I think the soundsystem caught fire at the beginning, or some wires did anyway. and then eventually it all kicked off. great place to see the sunrise as well.
edit: also pretty funny to see people walking their dogs in the morning. what must they have thought!
Does anyone have an exact date for this? Or any more detailed memories?
And here’s a report from our raving reporter par excellence, Amino Clang:
Otterbourne Site:
We set off late again so by the time we were lost in the countryside it was pitch black except for the passing trees lit up by the headlamps of the Rave Mobile (a beat up white fiesta if I remember correctly) and the odd car going the other way. The drive to parties was usually accompanied by driving beats to keep us awake and get us in the mood.
Don’t ask me how, but eventually we ended up parking the car on the side of a road (along with hundreds of others) and set off on the long walk past the police roadblock (a load of railway sleepers that had been put across the road), down a VERY long road and onto the site.
My mate, The Driver, had spent the afternoon sewing tiny little glowsticks (available at all good fishing tackle shops) onto the knuckles of his white gloves for that extra edge to his dancing. He cracked the glowsticks on the walk down this massive road and was waving them about in a hardcore raver style most of the way. As we got closer to the site we passed some people who were walking the other way. They had seen The Driver raving away and weren’t too sure if they were about to get abducted by aliens or if they were just seeing things. They seemed quite relieved to see that it was just a raver and that he was real after all!
Anyway… we finally made it onto the site by walking through a gate onto the field and headed for the nearest sound system. It was a UV experience to say the least! It was still very dark out and the backdrops were looking fantastic under the UV and of course The Driver was in his element – glowing teeth, glowing gloves and glowing glowsticks. It still makes me grin when I remember it now!
Anyway… we didn’t stay there very long and off we trotted in the direction of the “Massive Factory Building Of Some Sort” (I guess we were either looking for friends or drugs or (probably) both). It was late and I hadn’t slept and I didn’t have any money for drugs so I just followed the group into this massive building full of ravers generally taking the piss. I don’t like it when raves are used as an excuse for vandalism, freedom to do what you want doesn’t mean you can be a 2@ and get away with it. So anyway, I wasn’t too happy about being in this building, but eventually I guess we found what we were looking for because I was given some E and we wandered off to find a sound system (thank fuck!).
For some reason this is where my memory becomes sketchy (who’d a thunk it!?!) so allow me to bullet point…
1. I remember that it was getting light when we left the building.
2. I remember wobbling about on top of a muddy hill near a sound system watching this geezer dancing. He must have been tripping because he was watching his arms move as intently as I was, moving like a fluid robot drawing geometrical shapes in the air with the traces coming off his arms. I can’t remember if he had his t-shirt hanging out of his back pocket, but he probably did, I can’t remember if he had a pony tail, curtains or a sun hat on, but it must have been one of the three, I can’t even remember if he had a whistle or a dummy or white gloves on, but I reckon it’s a safe bet!
All this talk of stereotypes has got me thinking. Let’s hold the mirror up to Clang for a minute…
I was almost certainly wearing some trippy t-shirt, possibly tie-die, possibly with my star sign on it, maybe even my URL t-shirt with the half Acid House Smiley and half Robo-Smiley logo on it. I will have been wearing some ridiculously bright home-made trousers (my favourites were the blue/green/red/yellow geometric patterned ones and the purple ones with little dayglo green wormy shapes on them). I must have been wearing my dayglo fleece and I probably had my tennis hat on (it was basically a sun hat with the words set, match and love sewn into it) and this was definitely accessorised with a nice home made badge made out of Fimo.) It was a round navy blue badge with glow-in-the-dark edging and a glow-in-the-dark E on it. If I wasn’t wearing my hat I will have been sporting the long-fringe-slicked-back-over-the-short-sides hairdo (I was working towards a pony tail and thank god I never made it that far!) Around my neck will have been any of the following, or maybe all of them: a crystal, a whistle, a home made Fimo pendant with a Purple Ohm on it, a lighter on a string and maybe another crystal for good measure. I usually had a bag with me too (dayglo backpack of course) which would have a bottle of Robbinsons Apple and Blackcurrant and my glow-in-the-dark juggling balls in it. Right, now we are on a level playing field, let me get back to Torpedo Town…
3. I remember seeing somebody else wearing a spiral tribe t-shirt (grey with black print), but it said “Make Some Fluffy Toys” instead of the Spirals’ usual war cry!
4. I remember sitting in the back of an old ambulance that was somebody’s excellent rave-mobile as the sun came up properly. Just chilling out in the sun smoking and talking shite, as you do.
5. I remember volunteering to go and get the tent out of the car for The Driver (well he had driven and we needed to get some stuff too) so me and another mate started the long walk back to the car…
1. I remember passing a few police vans and shitloads of ravers going back and forth up and down this road.
2. I remember walking along and looking out across the fields and seeing each blade of grass move at a different speed. Kind of difficult to describe this one, let me try again… In computer games that scroll across the screen, they make it look like a 3d image by using a technique known as parallax scrolling where the front layers (trees etc) will move quickly, while the background layers (hills etc) move much slower to give the effect of depth. Well, we could see each blade of grass scrolling at a different speed to give the impression of depth. Well… we were impressed anyway and we spent quite a bit of time walking back and forth watching this amazing phenomenon!
3. I remember somebody stopping us to skin up a spliff and talk about the party but we decided that his questions were all too suspicious (“do they look like they are going to be stopping soon?” , “Don’t worry about the pigs going by, I’ll just skin up this spliff and be on my way.”, etc) so we were pleased to say goodbye.
4. I remember getting back to the car and while we were sorting out our stuff to bring back to the party (tent, food, water, etc) a copper told us we had to move the car or he would ticket it and if it was still here in an hour he would ticket it again. Well neither of us could drive (even if we were straight) so we picked up our stuff and got a hustle on to get back to tell The Driver about his parking predicament.
6. I remember carrying the camping gear ALL THE WAY back to the site in a mad rush to pass on the message and immediately turning around to leave again. Allow me to elaborate…
7. I remember getting back to the site totally exhausted and walking past a fire engine that was refusing to go onto site without a police escort. I remember wondering why it was there at all!
8. I remember watching the plumes of smoke pouring out of the “Massive Factory Building Of Some Sort” as we sat in the sun with such happy times surrounding us, but such a depressing reminder in front of us of “The Morons Who Like To Ruin A Good Party” who latched onto the rave scene where they could be free to be idiots without anybody judging them or telling them that actually, maybe setting light to a building isn’t really in the spirit of a nice time for all!
9. I remember the vibe taking a bit of a dip right there and then, so we left Site 1 of Torpedo Town and didn’t look back.
Anarchy=Responsibility.
Romsey Site:
I have some vague memories of driving back into a town, going to a shop, parking up and making our way onto the second site of Torpedo Town.
What fuckin’ bliss!!
After leaving such a horrible site (or should that be sight?) we was right pleased to find this place. Happy people, soft grassy fields surrounded by trees, ravers chilling out in the sun, tipis, traveller vehicles, more friends and Spiral Tribe were in the area!
The rumour goes that Spiral Tribe had their decks confiscated on the way onto this site and so they were playing tapes instead of mixing vinyl, but I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference at the time anyway and as long the beat didn’t stop I was happy.
We set up the tent and proceeded to chill out for the day and just make the most of being somewhere so calm and peaceful (despite the Spirals Making Some Fuckin’ Noise!… no, scratch that… BECAUSE the Spirals were Making Some Fuckin’ Noise).
This is where I was given one of those “Bury your shit” flyers that were going about at the time (I was not impressed when my mum chucked it away along with my other Spiral Tribe flyers and those two-tone posters (one was black-on-white and the other was white-on-black) with the Spiral Tribe 23 face grinning at you) and I just remember seeing a traveller type walking purposefully towards a wooded area when one of his mates shouted for him and threw a shovel to him. I was never a traveller and I never stayed out for more than two nights anyway so I used to use the suppress-your-diet-and-clench method rather than the take-a-shovel-with-you method.
Anyway, the day passed, we met up with some more friends, took some more E and got things movin’ and shakin’ again. Back to the bullets…
1. I remember dancing in front of the Spiral Tribe Sound System with a big fuckin’ smile on my face, waving my hands in the air, surrounded by my friends and feeling more at home than ever. I still can’t beat that feeling.
2. I remember walking back and forth between the tent and the sound system, walking faster, stumbling more and getting more lost each time we tried to run the gauntlet.
3. I remember… not much else! Just wobbling about, giggling, dancing, falling over, gibbering, jabbering and generally spiralling about the place getting into the spirit of it all.
Bass + E + Friends = Joy!
Freepartypeople says: Here’s a comment from Ed:
Tekno travellers rocked it at the one where the factory nearby got set alight!! I had 2 pills 2 acid and 2 speed, it rained and I stashed my clothes in the tekno travs speaker boxes while ravin in me pants!! the wooden sound of the tts boxes fuckin rocked it all night long (and all day) until the factory fire fucked things up…altho I did have a paranoid time thinkin everyone was undercover old bill!!
There was a bit of agro between travellers and the young free party goers, especially when it emerged that some young entrepreneurs where charging an entrance fee to unsuspecting arrivals in cars, the was a rumour that a couple of coaches arrived for a rave that they’d paid 25 quid for, whether this was really true I never found out.
This was pre-Spiral Tribe, so I don’t know which soundsystems were there, does anyone? ;P
Here’s an excerpt from a self-published book on the early nineties free party scene by someone called Andy Brown. It’s a fantastic book full of spaced out enthusiastic ramblings and great descriptions of free parties and festivals. The name says it all really: Rave: The Spiritual Dimension. I found this in the British Library, and have only ever seen one other copy.
The festival was triggered off in the early 1980’s as a protest against the development of a place called Brambles Farm into a torpedo factory… ever since Brambles Farm was developed, the festival has been held at a different site each year. Things really started to move in 1990 when some clued-up people took some scratching record decks and strobe lights to the the Torpedo Town event at Chapel Common near Rake. It is dark, you’ve just parked up in some lane and are climbing over the brow of a hill towards the flickering strobes and thumping bass. You think the authorities are going to bust the whole thing at any moment and the buzz that gets going is just too much. The beat goes right through you and an amazing feeling rises from your stomach. It feels so good, it is as if you are going to explode with pleasure… In daylight you could see the whole site of what must have been at least 200 acres. There were two encampments: Travellers and their buses on one side of the valley and Ravers on the other. That festival was definitely one of the most wonderful times of my life… Nowadays of course we’re lucky to get one-weekend festivals and a bonus at Chapel Common was that it lasted for more than two weeks and had two party weekends. As far as the authorities are concerned, once these events reach a certain size, a critical mass you could call it, they are far too hot to handle so they just let them burn themselves out.
The links to mixes were broken, please let us know in the comments if you see broken links and we’ll endeavour to fix them. This is a solo effort and now that there are over 100 party reports to keep track of, we’ll need a hand
Jack’s mix can be found here. Track listing can be found here.
Digs and Woosh’s set is here. The track list is here.
There are a whole heap of (non-DiY Universe tracklists here and plenty of mixes to be found online).
Scroll down to below the flyer for the party report
Here’s a long party report from an anonymous contributor:
Why the hell am I writing about a pay rave on a website that’s all about free parties and festies??? Well, it’s because, although I had a great time for some of the time (i.e. when we were in the DiY tent), this party had none of the atmosphere that makes free parties great, and I wanted to try and explain why.
The only time I ever went to a DiY do it wasn’t a free party, it was this Universe event where they ran a tent. It was quite a night, I remember dancing on the stage for a while, but I got so involved with the whole music/dancing/smiling thing that I hadn’t realised I was jogging the decks. Sorry! There were great psychedelic projections on the roof and wall of the tent, and the deep deep house music really drew me in for the first time, it made techno seem a bit grey and humourless, this was REAL FUN. Another good point for us was when we sat down by the edge of the DiY tent for a breather, and two strangers started massaging us through the tent. We never saw their faces but it was rather nice.
The other tents were less interesting. The second one, the house tent, which was empty, seemed to be playing remixes of Nirvana every time we went in.
Another tent had a row of people in chairs using ‘dream machine’ goggles. As we were passing, one of the guys using the goggles had a massive epileptic fit, pretty worrying.
The main tent was enormous, and condensed sweat was raining from the roof . There was a noticable lack of girls, and all the way to the back of the tent you could see legions of skinhead/tops off/gurning/bugeyed/macho/E-gannet blokes. I remember being a bit shocked at the sheer scale of it, why would people NEED to rave in such huge numbers? I just didn’t get it.
This party was my first pay rave and I really noticed the difference between this kind if party and a proper (free) one. A lot of the people there were unfriendly to say the least, unless of course they wanted to tell you how many E’s they’d had (usually more than three, for the record). Stingy too, a friend and I wandered round when it was getting light looking for Rizlas, but if anyone had any they certainly weren’t giving them to us. Tightwads Of course there were stalls selling skins at loopy prices but sod that. And of course Rizlas were probably on the long list of things which got confiscated at the gate.
We also noticed (as I’ve already mentioned) that everyone was going well overboard with their intake. My raving buddy thinks saw a guy’s eyes turning black due to overdoing poppers.
[Update: My raving companion that night remembers things a little differently: ” Nobody’s eyes turned red, that was black, I saw that. Two E’d up crew cut northerners had a bottle of poppers clamped to each nostril and were huffing vigorously until their eyes turned black. But could have been an active imagination, a lot of these things are I guess.
Also remember someone eating speed at the chill out area and then throwing up everywhere, near us as well. We moved on.
Apart from that I remember going on one of those horrible rides, it was half fairground really.”]
I also saw someone freebasing (which I’d never seen before). There was a weird vibe at this party and the other two or three big pay raves I went to- it was as if everyone had been locked into a fenced compound and told to neck as many pills etc as possible before the party ended. With free parties and free festivals there was a more relaxed atmosphere i.e. ‘Let’s go and chill in the car/van/tent for a while, then we can come back and fucking have it ‘
Another downer was the fact that there were clearly gangs out hassling and hustling and generally being rude boys which contributed to the feeling of being a bit on edge.
The way the party ended was pretty top though. I can’t remember the details but it went something like this: in the main tent, maybe half an hour before the party was due to end, the music suddenly stopped, and the stage, which I was right in front of, suddenly swarmed with policemen. One of them grabbed a mic and started explaining (to a loud chorus of ‘booooo’) that the party was going to finish early. The crowd’s mood became even more menacing but suddenly the cop with the microphone turned round and told us that actually the party could go on for an extra half hour. The music started up again and the cops tore their hats off and started going for it like the rest of us. They’d been actors all along. Everyone went mental (in a good way this time).
Universe had a good reputation as organisers back then, and a lot of the things I’m complaining about weren’t really their fault. Fair play to Universe for booking DiY to play at this, I had a wonderful time for some of the time at this party, and also at some of the Tribal Gatherings and Big Love, but for me personally nothing was ever going to top a really wicked free party
Update: The links to pages of photos and drawings of this party broke, perhaps some time ago. Do you have any photos, if so, email us at freepartypeople (dot) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk . Thanks!
Heard about this a looong time ago but didn’t attend it myself. Allegedly went on for 3 days and was still running on the Monday, hence the dates at the top of this post (Saturday 24th to Monday 26th).
Were you there? What was it like? Please leave a message in the comments.
Darren sent us his account of the night, thanks Darren!
A chapter from my life where I attempted to rescue an invisible girl from the murky depths of a quarry
Darren Worrow
It’s 2015 and I’m just a shitty delivery driver blindly following a sat-nav through Oxfordshire, that’s how much I progressed in my life. Yeah could blame it on my youth, but I’d rather not reminisce on the endless parties, psychedelia and various shenanigans. Much as nostalgia gratifies me, they all blur into one great festival of perpetual hedonism. But memories slip into the empty fish-tank of my head whilst voyaging along these monotonously congested roads.
Using back roads I’m passing through the sleepy village of Cassington, a shard of recollection sweeps, a chapter from my life where I attempted to rescue an invisible girl from the murky depths of a quarry with a lone traveller non too impressed by the authenticity of the emergency.
Thing is there seems to be no sign of a railway track here and I distinctly recall a train track in which “ravers,” as they were termed during the period, were sternly warned by the master of ceremonies, not to sunbathe or even wander the train track, being it was a train track and well, trains tend to trek along them; understandable concern really.
I find, some way out of the village a railway over a bridge, I stop there for a smoke-o and scan the horizon for a quarry. Yeah this must be the track but, jaded as my memory is, I know accurately there was a quarry too; have good reason to.
Does it matter, why do I feel the need to locate the sites of these wild free raves for anyway, to relish in memories of gold, to recapture my youth, or simply to have confirmation these things really happened at all?
You see if you came here looking to precise details about the event I apologise, it may be the passing of the years, or the man in the Brocade trilby and puffer-jacket who kindly sold me some party accessories, but my memory is jaded.
I cannot recall how I got there, estimating my friend and I scrounged a lift by hanging outside our local watering hole asking any passer-by if they were going to the party, as that was our usual method pre-driving test. With equal vagueness I recall getting home, but as for the bit in the middle, well, memories are fond and surprisingly vivid.
A year away from the supermassive events at Lechlade and Castlemorton this occasion was sizable, wedged in a valley between the train lines and the quarry, a grassland dancefloor was packed, with the sound system situated to the east and the car parking area to the west.
The party was humming and I did my traditional meandering away from friends who favoured loitering at the car parking zone. Still in darkness around the dance area I perchance to befriend a rather charismatic young lady with a Cheshire cat grin and eyes like saucers.
We danced for an undeterminable period, but time was never an issue here. Then we stepped back to take a breather where she kindly shared her bottle of water and lent me a chewing gum to ease my vibrating jaw, a symptom of the aforementioned party accessories.
At that time the modern designer drug they called simply “E” was costly compared with the price tag of later years, but rather than exorbitant they had a higher quality which the later versions simply never matched. Nevertheless budget was low and I would top up my experience with a square of cardboard they dubbed “acid.” In my infinite wisdom, rather than stash said cardboard square upon my person for later consumption, I feared I may lose it and therefore the best storage option I had was my stomach.
Miraculously I convinced the girl to saunter up the bank with me under the cunning temptation of constructing a cannabis cigar. We wandered and chatted, I expressed my emotional state; how in awe I was at the serenity and togetherness of the raves and pondered if only real life could harness this ethos. My profound ramblings were lost though when she turned her head and said, “You what mate? You’ll have to speak up; I’m partially deaf in this ear.”
Enjoying each other’s company, we covered some ground; over the bank and into dark reedy grassland. I stopped as the greenness below seemed to halt, there was a clear drop ahead; into a disused quarry, I was led to believe.
It was at this point I looked up to the starry night but as I dropped my head back to Earth she had vanished. I called her name and her reply came, “I’m down here!”
As much as the manner of intoxication caused a collective and calm experience, I fear meshed with the cardboard square, things tended to get muddled. I panicked, figuring she had fallen into the quarry. Had I turned around or at least sensed the voice came from behind and not in front of me, I may have realised she simply descended the bank, back towards the rave.
Rational thinking I called down, ordering her to stay there and I would get help. I shifted along the bank, plunging once I spotted a traveller’s coach. Figuring if anyone could assist it would be them; they were bound to have a rope if anyone here had. I threw myself at a large chap, attired in traditional traveller garb and crusty dreadlocks. After a short communication breakdown the kindly fellow realised I wasn’t seeking party accessories and managed to produce a tow-rope and powerful torch.
Not willing to part with them he joined me on the rescue. United we peered over the bank, I was certain I had returned to the exact point, he was doubtful of my sense of direction. The traveller shone his torch down there and called down, increasing his pessimism about my claim. I assured him it was real, even pointed out she was deaf in one ear.
As he grew fretful of my sanity, I grew concerned she was unconscious down there and tried to convince him I was authentically in trouble. He shook his head and instructed me to taunt the end of the towrope as he steadied himself and lowered himself down the perilous side of the bank. He scrambled a quarter down and shone his effective torch at the bottom of the dry quarry. Then returned to the surface to inform me he could not see anyone down there.
If I was sure, he ascertained with a sigh, we needed help. So we dashed to his coach to rally some able-bodied men. Upon our return I was dismayed, and looked out at the dancing ravers having fun, blissfully unaware of the peril one of their tribe was currently in. It was at that point one charismatic young lady with a Cheshire cat grin and eyes like saucers passed by, looking strikingly similar to the girl down the quarry. “Alright mate?” she grinned as she passed, “what happened to you, I was looking for ya?”
Once explained the situation to the travellers and made a quick exit, I referred the anecdote to the girl and she nodded her understanding but, was gone from my life as quick as she came into it; sensible choice really…..
From Alan Dearing with Traveller Friends, Travelling Daze. Eyemouth: Enabler Publications, 2nd Ed. 2015, p.147.
The following is a Spirals document written by Charly Hall of Drum Club fame:
TORPEDO TOWN REPORT
8.30 a.m 2nd Agust [sic] 1991 Notting Hill Gate, London.
Wake-up Call from Stika, Spiral D.J. and Fun-De-Mental Sound System.
We’re heading down the A3, Guildford way for the annual ‘TORPEDO TOWN FESTIVAL’. I imagine a field on a hill in the rain, mud, hard work, no shelter, danger (it’s MOD land that we’ll be borrowing, they won’t be happy…). But it’s a fanfastic [sic] morning, clear, skies, hot sun. The police tow away a car that ‘s parked (legally) blocking the exit for my (illegally) parked van, a good omen. We travel out of London against thesnarled traffic that’s piled up, stressed people hurrying to their wretched jobs. We’re always going against the flow. We’re alright.
11.00 a.m. We call our contact number. The site has had an injunction clapped on it banning the festival from taking place there. No Problem. Hundreds of police have cordoned off the area. That’s good. keep ‘em busy.
11.30 a.m. Meanwhile. Another good site has been found. A few miles away, still on MOD land. No police, just green meadows surrounded by magnificent beech forests, it’s perfect. Four or five lush spaces linked by a knackered asphalt track. Looking at the green grassy spaces it’s hard to imagine what will take place. The giant trees surround and protect us, birds tweet, dogs and children race about and we start setting up the Fun-De-Mental sound. The Spiral Tribe System is on the way from Wales and the Bala Free Festival. Fun-De-Mental is set up in a little glade and Spiral Tribe are staking out a large paddock.
9.00 p.m. The sun goes down for the first night at Torpedo Town, it is a town now, the convoy has been trailing its way onto the site all day, there’s more on the way, it’s unstoppable and when people arrive they camp up, forming villages, communities within the great Town and we’re all under the same banner, ravers and travellers alike, a true community.
12.00 Midnight. The Spiral Sound is in the area!!
Wires, speakers, plugs, generators; a mad electrical language, buzzing tweeting, booming, darkness and from the earthy gloom comes the groan of the bass. We’re off. Spiral Tribe have brought the Spiral City down from Wales, a crazy mess of Ultra-Violet sculptures somehow attached to a beat-up bus. It’s mad, fully effective. The police stay put. In the daylight a helicopter buzzes overhead and various officers appear on the site, but it is too late. There are too many people on the pitch , too many on the road, only peace, not even an excuse to raid it and they wisely stand aside and let us play. There are no organisers to cajole, or threaten, everyone turns up as individuals ; ravers in their Astras, Travellers in their …their… vehicles, unstoppable. There are no organisers, promoters, security. By Saturday morning there are about 25,000 people in Torpedo Town, a handful of relaxed police loiter by the entrance. It has been too late to get an injunction on the land, the MOD is a bureaucratic monster, easy to stroll around. No time now : Time has lost meaning, it’s just the passage of sun and moon now. We sleep when we feel ready, eat if we’re hungry
This is Spiral Time.
Thousands of people are jacking to the Spiral sound, This is Bigger than anyone can have expected. It’s a huge Rave, it’s a massive Festival. All around are fire jugglers, camp fires, weird lights, the trees above the dancers, trees that are sent into manic convulsions with the giant strobes sending pure white and multicoloured stripes into the bubbling mass of leaves. Sirens, horns, whistles, yells, whoops and a booming sound. Underneath all this is the earth, usually only available for the hard boots of MOD forces but now battered Hi-tops, fucked-up Para boots, sandals, bare feet all stomp the ground in tribal ecstacy. The sun comes up again, what day is it? There’s more records lo be played, more petrol in the generators, more people flooding in. And they all want the same thing; they don’t want to make the world change, it is changing and thy [sic] want to be part of it and be free to do it their way.
25.000 people. No organizers. No security. No arrests. One ambulance. One fire truck. 72 hours non-stop.
CHARLY HALL
UPDATE 18/8/21: Re. the date: we have settled on 2nd to 4th. There are also posters on this page stating it started on the 7th (a Wednesday), that page also includes the information that it ran from 9th (Friday) to 12th (Monday) August. Let us know in the comments if you think we’re wrong
We try and keep an eye out for broken links/deleted video/mixes etc but please let us know if anything seems wonky or missing
Please note: this covers the 1991 festival, here are links to the 1990 and 1992 festivals of the same name.
Here’s a picture and some quotes from Andy Brown’s wonderful but hard to find book ‘Rave: The Spiritual Dimension’. If anyone else has anything to add about this, please send it in
In 1991, the festival was 5 miles further north along the A3 and the turnout was even higher at a cool 12,000… Torpedo Town 1991 mushroomed into existence on a Friday night, grew at a phenomenal rate for all of Saturday, sustained itself through Sunday and then, on account of an M.O.D. injunction, had completely disappeared by Tuesday, except of course for the burned out wreck of a coach which looked like a crashed spaceship. The land itself was I think a M.O.D. common, mainly scrub trees and grass with broken, disused tarmac roads. When we first arrived on the Friday night things were a bit quiet so we took it easy. We parked up in a lane thing and pitched our tents right near. To start off with there were hardly any tents but things didn’t stay that way for long. As more people arrived, a right of way formed through our piece or real estate. What had been a hardly used path through the ferns when we arrived, was now one of the main routes for ravers collecting firewood from the forest. What had happened was that the quiet suburbs which were quite near to the dancefloors had turned into prime sites. Anyway, we had a good spot so we weren’t bothered. At its peak, the city had streets, all heaving with bright eyed happy people, so many that sometimes the paths were so completely rammed with bodies that you couldn’t move at all. This festival really was a city and it even had its own booming economy. I don’t think I need to say what were the main commodities but just as in any established city, you could buy anything you wanted from food to clothes- even a haircut. I was so happy, I cannot stress that too much, really, really, really good times. The totally awesome atmosphere generated at these festivals can be overwhelming… It no exaggeration that once experienced, these festivals can change your life.
Although we had heard that Fun-de-mental were there no-one has confirmed it so we had to remove them. We never came across them in our limited wanderings, which doesn’t really mean much, so anyone confirm that they were there, either as part of a bigger rig or on their own? Thanks!
We’ve heard that Spiral didn’t have their sound system there, but used Bedlam’s. We have left their name in the title as we know there was a lot of cross-pollination between the two crews and we also see they brought their backdrops and some vehicles. Did they bring some DJs too? Let us know.
Also, we added Techno Travellers as we believe it was their rig in the Circus Warp tent.
There was one smaller system turned up on Sunday morning that we have seen photos of. If you know who that was let us know
Thanks to Simon K for the newspaper clippings, much appreciated!
Again, thanks Simon K for the newspaper clipping, we didn’t even know this photo of Lechlade from the air existed.
Transcripts of the accompanying newspaper article, plus a couple more, are below, again courtesy to Simon K
The hippy invasion
By Barry Leighton
A SMALL rural town was last night the centre of a massive illegal party after an invasion by thousands of hippies and ravers.
As many as 10,000 people gathered in a disused quarry at Lechlade, near Swindon, for a rave which threatens to carry on today.
Stunned families watched in amazement as as some 2,000 new-age travellers began arriving in the sleepy Cotswold town in a ragged assortment of vehicles on Friday and Saturday.
They were followed by an estimated 8,000 ravers on Saturday night who helped turn what was originally intended as an ancient pagan celebration into a huge dance party.
Bulky sound-systems pumped out non-stop dance music throughout the day and night as police, unable to halt such vast numbers, stood by.
Last night, as more people threatened to pour in for the ongoing party, angry locals demanded to know why it had been allowed to take place.
Families in the picture-postcard town on the banks of the Thames are also seeking action to ensure that such an event is never staged there again.
Mr Ian Cook, whose recently built detached house is just over the road from the festival site, said: “I object to the mess, the sanitation problems, the amount it’s going to cost the poll tax payers to clean up.
“We moved here for some peace and quiet, it’s disgusting.”
The land is owned by ARC who applied for an injunction after a small group of travellers arrived last Tuesday.
On Friday, Thames Valley police prevented what was becoming an annual May Day pagan fertility festival at Hungerford.
Instead the travellers set off in a convoy of battered lorries, buses and vans for Lechlade where a reserve site had been earmarked.
By Friday night some 350 vehicles were camped on the grassy site and a huge former circus tent was erected.
Word spread and on Saturday thousands of young people converged on Lechlade from all over the West, London and the Midlands for a huge illegal rave.
Some 4,000 cars and vans were parked on grass verges and roundabouts in and around the site on the edge of town.
The authorities laid on water supplies, rubbish sacks and skips for festival goers to dump garbage.
The small town, which usually requires just one policeman, was swollen to more than double its normal population.
Gloucestershire police, with help from neighbouring Wiltshire and Thames Valley constabularies, were unable to stop traffic pouring into Lechlade.
Drugs
Chief Inspector John Parsons said that all police could do was ensure that the roads were clear and isolate the site as much as possible.
He said they knew drugs were being used but that police had decided not to go on site as it would present all sorts of problems.
Cotswold councillor for Lechlade, Mrs Pat Pretty (Ind), who was at the scene yesterday, [rest of article missing]
HIPPIE SHAKER!
By MANDY CANN
ADVERTISER STAFF
Village rocked by party-goers
TEN thousand would-be a revellers looking for party shattered villagers’ peace.
Stunned residents of Lechlade, near Swindon, watched in disbelief as nearly 10,000 ravers descended on a disused quarry near the village on Saturday night.
Cars lined grass verges and choked roads as people swarmed into the area hoping to attend an illegal party on the quarry site.
But they soon left when the party they had hoped for turned out to be new age travellers listening to music and not a rave.
Gloucestershire police stepped up their presence in Lechlade and the surrounding
villages but made only five arrests on Saturday night.
About 1,000 travellers and 500 vehicles moved into a quarry on
“Our sleepy little villageis not sleepy any more”
Friday to celebrate the ancient May Day festival of Beltane.
They parked vehicles in a circle around the quarry and were listening to live music.
The travellers were still on the site celebrating the festival today.
Insp Eddie Whitlock said: “I think the ravers who turned up were expecting something a bit different, and as some left others came, and the numbers fluctuated all night.”
Peter Randell, landlord of the Crown Inn, in the High Street said: ‘It is not that the travellers are a problem, but the number of them is.
“They have been arriving since Friday, but we don’t see them at night. It is in the day when we notice them wandering around the village.
“It is a bit of a worry and you have to be on your guard in case anything happens, but I don’t think they are really causing any big problems.”
Penny Warren, landlady of The Trout Inn said: “Our sleepy little village isn’t sleepy any more, and we have never seen so many people in one place at any one time. But they are not causing us any problems at all.”
A resident, who refused to be named, said: “There are all sorts of people milling around but they are not doing anybody any harm. I always say live and let live.”
The site is owned by quarry company ARC which applied for an injunction after a small group of travellers arrived on Tuesday.
Western Daily Press Wednesday 8th May:
Villages go on hippy invasion alert
VILLAGERS across the West were last night waiting in fear to see where thousands of New Age travellers would move next after a massive festival came to a close.
Fewer than 1,000 travellers and 400 vehicles were still at the quarry in Lechlade, near Swindon, last night after around 10,000 people spent two days and nights at a Bank Holiday illegal rave party.
Police said 53 arrests had been made during the weekend, mainly for drug-related offences, but there had been little trouble considering it was such a large gathering.
Yesterday concern focused on where the hard-core of around 2,000 new age travellers, many still at the quarry, would move next.
Mr David Durbin, town clerk of nearby Cirencester said: “I really hope the town is safe. We are relying on the forces of law and order to protect us.
And Cirencester and Tewkesbury MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, whose constituency includes the site of the illegal rave, criticised authorities in Hungerford, from where many of the travellers came.
“It should have been possible for them to establish where they are going to descend next.
“After this every landowner has got to be concerned about travellers moving around and descending illegally on private property.
“It is quite intolerable that hippies should descend on someone’s land and just stay there. I do not see why these people should not have to behave like other citizens.
Gloucestershire assistant chief constable Nigel Burgess said travellers were leaving individually rather than in a convoy that could be tracked through the county.
“We don’t exactly know where they are going and I am sure many of them don’t know where they are going themselves, he said.
Police have ruled out use of the Public Order Act to arrest and remove remaining travellers as likely to spark greater disruption in Lechlade than residents have already suffered.
Quarry owner ARC yesterday heard its application for an injunction to force the remaining travellers to move on would not be heard until tomorrow.
One of the travellers said there had been no trouble at all and the festival had shown that such events could pass of [sic] peacefully.
James’ image of Lechlade. He also sent us a load from Castlemorton together with a couple more, they will be going up soonish Thanks James!Another from James, thanks!And one more of James’. This was labelled Oxford but looking at the positioning of the camo netting on the yellow truck at the back, it seems to match the other Lechlade photos.
Jamie’s images from Lechlade below. His photos are also in the Roundway Hill post. And a memory of his: nice to know you were at Lechlade too, we stayed until Sunday too, it was a good mayhem!! I think I stayed in bed for about a week after that one
Hello Graudian readers! Thanks for visiting, but thanks to a mistake on this page, this isn’t the page you’re looking for! Click here for the Castlemorton Common free festival page. Cheers!
No idea [how we heard about it]. But I think the original information I had was that it was going to be in Hungerford and possibly put on by an organisation called Asylum? Think we left from Bridport. We would have got details of the location along the way but who from I don’t know. Did we have a number to call? We might have seen fellow ravers at a petrol station, and as we got closer to the site we would have joined a convoy of cars.
[We got there] early evening. First impressions were how huge it was; cars and traveller vehicles everywhere. We were worried about there being so many police but when I wound down my window to speak to one all he wanted to tell me was where to park. …how busy it was, and how loud it was and as we approached the first sound system it got more and more intense and people looked more and more gaunt like they’d been drugged up and dancing for hours.
I seem to remember D taking me off around the site trying to score and we ended up sharing a joint with some people in the back of their Luton van. They had turntables and it was decked out like a chill out room. I got the feeling they were posh travellers. Nice though.
I do remember spending most of our time at Circus Warp. Best music, best decor, best vibe. I’ve got written down that I had a Roobarb & Custard, Black Sun (acid?) and a gram of speed.
I seem to remember dancing a lot, mostly at Circus Warp. I think I had my spy sunglasses on, with mirrors in the sides so you could see behind you, but while dancing and nodding your head it gave a really good extra dimension to the rhythm of dancing. I also remember dancing on my own and I kept thinking I was seeing people I knew but when I went up to them it wasn’t who I thought it was. I remember seeing some very straight looking people dancing and figured out they were probably locals from Lechlade, come down to see what all the fuss was about and decided to stay and party.
Can’t remember any actual tunes at Circus Warp but they played excellent breakbeat the whole time. In the morning Spiral played Digeridoo and there was a very nutty looking guy who looked high as a kite flinging his arms in the air to the beat.
Was it at Lechlade that there was the guy in orange trousers and floppy hat dancing on the roof of a van grinning and pointing at people and dancing in the most funky way? Someone on freepartypeople must know who he is.
We spent quite a lot of time in the car listening in amazement as the Orbital remixes seemed to ricochet around the inside of the car. I did my usual of spending what seemed like hours trying to roll a joint, only to find the papers were the wrong way round. Felt drugged up to the eyeballs, unable to move and had to wait until things got less intense before we could venture back outside.
[On the Sunday morning] I think we saw some very out of it travellers get into car (off on a Brew mission I think) and somehow drove it around people and tents and other cars through the field without hitting a thing.
I don’t remember any tension [between travellers and ravers], but I do remember seeing a traveller lying in the field in front of the Spiral sound system and a raver going to shake his hand and trying to lift him up. The raver was putting everything into lifting up the traveller and the traveller, in his blissed out state was remaining on the grass and in my mind it turned into a struggle between urban and rural, manufactured and organic, intensity and indifference.
Probably drove back Sunday afternoon/evening. I expect we didn’t have a huge amount to say to eachother. We were probably listening to some more mellow music, Special K perhaps, rolling lots of joints and looking forward to gettting home and getting some sleep.
Update 23/1/21:
From Ian Young, It’s Not About Me! Confessions Of A Recovered Outlaw Addict- From Living Hell To Living Big. Norwich: Anoma Press, 2013, p.59-60.
Here are a couple of news reports about this party. Thanks again to faithful contributor Mr. Clang for the tip, and Youtuber Spaceweed23 for the upload!
Here’s a report from someone who wishes to remain anonymous:
A disused quarry in Gloucestershire was the venue for this 8,000/10,000/15,000-strong free technofesty blowout. Who counts the numbers anyway ;P If it was based on the number of cars it would be an underestimate- 4 people per car was the absolute minimum those days. Police estimates are always ALWAYS under (for obvious reasons), especially at ‘oppositional’ events e.g. free unlicensed 3-day festivals, reclaim the streets etc. demonstrations.
This pic of Lechlade featured in an article in Select magazine:
Missed Castlemorton due to leaving my brain at Lechlade. A long drive up. I think we got the location of the party from the news reports:
When we arrived we had a jittery moment because the police stopped our car on the way in. FFFFFFffffUUUUUCCCCkkkkk! Oh no, it’s OK, they’re just telling us where to park, politely. A few metres away a dealer was standing in the middle of the road bellowing “Rhubarb and Custards! Callies!”
I think the big white tent in the pics above was Rob Pike’s but I don’t remember there being a rig in there at this do.
This blue and orange marquee in the pic above was Circus Warp’s. I also remember a load of far out UV stuff dangling from the roof of their tent, including bicycle wheels. Also a mad max robot and some red/orange speakers behind the back of the tent which didn’t seem to be switched on:
A fantastic atmosphere notwithstanding a little friction between the hippies and the ravers- heard a few expensively dressed ravers getting harangued by the crusties: “OOOOOooooh dress to IMPRESS!”. Oh yeah, and someone laughed at my hat. I deserved it for sure
Other sights and sounds:
Flinching at the sheer excessive volume of the beat coming from the Spiral system in the blazing sunlight on Sunday morning, when we felt particularly fragile.
A brew crew/keta/acid/whatever casualty rolling around on the ground trying to scratch the tattoo off his arm.
A bunch of well-spoken but off-their-tits Oxford medical students who came and sat in our car, and jabbered with us for either 3 minutes or three hours.
A misty and gentle sunrise over one of the huge trout ponds (which, incidentally, contained huge trout).
Seeing some poor fucker who’d overdone it being carted away.
Finding a lost crusty puppy.
Taking photos of ourselves and the next week wondering what the nice girl in Boots thought was wrong with our faces in the pictures.
The aftermath:
It was even mentioned in the Commons:
Sir David Mitchell (Hampshire, North-West) :
I noticed that on the spring bank holiday about 30,000 people attended a pop festival at Lechlade in Gloucestershire, and if more itinerants and hippies come to my constituency in the pre-solstice period, the noise disturbance, the petty crime and the filth that they will leave behind will cause my constituents great anxiety.
also
On 21 June, the summer solstice arrives and large numbers of hippies, itinerants and new-age travellers can be expected. Some of my constituents call them by names that cannot be expressed in parliamentary language.
Rorz Merton (@MertonRorz) says:
The police cordon got tighter and tighter so we moved the van nearer to the last remaining system playing. This was my first experience of Spiral Tribe. Picture the scene – mid Sunday afternoon in blazing summer sunshine, people dancing on top of vehicles to twisted acid techno, lots of dust around – or maybe thats just me. Not sure I’ll ever be able to forget that.
. There was a noticable lack of girls, and all the way to the back of the tent you could see legions of skinhead/tops off/gurning/bugeyed/macho/E-gannet blokes. I remember being a bit shocked at the sheer scale of it, why would people NEED to rave in such huge numbers? I just didn’t get it.
