Festivals Britannia

0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.

0:00:10 > 0:00:15There are more music festivals these days than you can shake a pair of designer wellies at.

0:00:15 > 0:00:19One in ten British adults attended a festival this year.

0:00:19 > 0:00:20It's a billion-pound industry.

0:00:20 > 0:00:25The latest craze of the media age beamed directly into your homes.

0:00:27 > 0:00:32From anarchy and freedom in the '60s, to the mobile phones and cash points of today,

0:00:32 > 0:00:39the British festival has been an ever-evolving battleground for society's hopes and ideals.

0:00:39 > 0:00:44This is the story of Britain's love affair with the festival.

0:00:44 > 0:00:48And how a handful of mavericks, dreamers and drop-outs

0:00:48 > 0:00:51felt the calling of the music of rebellion and the wild.

0:00:51 > 0:00:54How different generations have sought an alternative

0:00:54 > 0:01:00way of life through festivals and how that has changed the British cultural landscape forever.

0:01:14 > 0:01:16Ah, the British summer.

0:01:16 > 0:01:19Cricket on the village green.

0:01:19 > 0:01:21An ice-cream at the pier.

0:01:21 > 0:01:24A day at the races and...

0:01:24 > 0:01:29MUSIC: "Song 2" by Blur

0:01:36 > 0:01:42The music festival has become part and parcel of our summer months.

0:01:42 > 0:01:48It's a yearly pilgrimage into the countryside to wallow in mud, music and mayhem.

0:01:48 > 0:01:51A youthful rite of passage.

0:01:51 > 0:01:56A place where people go to lose themselves and discover each other.

0:01:59 > 0:02:05When you arrive at the festival, it's as if your life has now been cut

0:02:05 > 0:02:08from the life that you lived.

0:02:08 > 0:02:10I think it is freedom.

0:02:10 > 0:02:12People are looking for freedom,

0:02:12 > 0:02:14even if they're not quite sure what it is.

0:02:14 > 0:02:17They are looking for the idea to go into a field

0:02:17 > 0:02:20with a group of other people and have a bit of a fire

0:02:20 > 0:02:23and dance around to some music and escape the walls.

0:02:25 > 0:02:28It's that feeling that you're not alone. It's really important.

0:02:28 > 0:02:31And that you're part of a group.

0:02:34 > 0:02:37I think it's some sort of spiritual need, maybe,

0:02:37 > 0:02:41for people to go and get together and enjoy each other's company

0:02:41 > 0:02:44and let a bit of steam off, really.

0:02:48 > 0:02:53For many, a festival is about the call of the countryside and getting back to basics.

0:02:54 > 0:02:58It's got its own magic. I mean, it's all about being alive.

0:02:58 > 0:03:00Back to those memories when you're looking up at the stars

0:03:00 > 0:03:01for the first time.

0:03:01 > 0:03:04And I think it's as simple as that.

0:03:04 > 0:03:09The idea of actually going out into the country and sitting on green fields,

0:03:09 > 0:03:15with a lovely sunset, stars in the sky, the moon at night, and all that kind of thing.

0:03:15 > 0:03:19There's certain smells like the camp-fire-at-dusk smell.

0:03:19 > 0:03:22There's a sort of excitement which comes with it because

0:03:22 > 0:03:24it's turning into darkness

0:03:24 > 0:03:29and it feels like it could go in any direction at that point.

0:03:29 > 0:03:30# Out here in the fields... #

0:03:32 > 0:03:35For others, it's about the unifying force of the music.

0:03:35 > 0:03:39There is something magical about coming together and having that

0:03:39 > 0:03:42sort of transcendent moment where your band that you love

0:03:42 > 0:03:45plays a song that you love when you're in the environment

0:03:45 > 0:03:48that you love with all these people that suddenly you love,

0:03:48 > 0:03:50cos they all love this moment too.

0:03:50 > 0:03:53CROWD SINGS: # Na na na-na-na na

0:03:53 > 0:03:58# Na-na-na na, hey Jude

0:03:58 > 0:04:00# Yeah, yeah, yeah... #

0:04:03 > 0:04:06You feel the emotion, in the middle of a song, I mean,

0:04:06 > 0:04:10you feel the emotion and you go, "What did I do?"

0:04:10 > 0:04:13It's just all over the whole place a mile back.

0:04:13 > 0:04:16And you start to feel it like a wave go with you.

0:04:21 > 0:04:28But these fundamental forces that draw us to festivals every year are nothing new.

0:04:28 > 0:04:34What has seemingly turned into a corporate juggernaut has older, more humble roots.

0:04:34 > 0:04:37The two voluntary sufferers of Chipping Campbell

0:04:37 > 0:04:40had thoroughly entered into the spirit of festival week.

0:04:40 > 0:04:44The idea of a festival goes back into antiquity.

0:04:44 > 0:04:50The great cosmic moments, if you like, which occur every year, which are the longest and shortest days,

0:04:50 > 0:04:52were always anciently celebrated

0:04:52 > 0:04:55up and down the shires and the rest of it,

0:04:55 > 0:04:59in fairs, events, gatherings and music and merry-making.

0:04:59 > 0:05:02This seems to be as old as man.

0:05:02 > 0:05:05There was dancing on the village green.

0:05:05 > 0:05:09I feel there's a certain element in the British cultural DNA that

0:05:09 > 0:05:13really kind of lends itself to rural gatherings. They are traditional.

0:05:13 > 0:05:16They go back almost before time.

0:05:16 > 0:05:22Sheep fairs and horse fairs and Michaelmas.

0:05:22 > 0:05:24The festival itself has become huge.

0:05:24 > 0:05:27The Jazz Festivals, I think,

0:05:27 > 0:05:29were definitely among the first, if not the first.

0:05:38 > 0:05:42The actual breeding ground of pop festival

0:05:42 > 0:05:46would have to be jazz festival, because at jazz festival you have

0:05:46 > 0:05:51the complete freedom of alternative culture, and jazz, of course,

0:05:51 > 0:05:55has been the sound of bohemia since 1920.

0:05:59 > 0:06:03A young generation was emerging from the austerity of post-war Britain,

0:06:03 > 0:06:07desperate to let its hair down and get its knees up.

0:06:07 > 0:06:10In search of an identity and a cause,

0:06:10 > 0:06:13jazz would be their rallying call as thousands of teenagers gathered

0:06:13 > 0:06:17whilst a bewildered establishment looked suspiciously on.

0:06:17 > 0:06:23The raucous, gay, sad music of a generation more closely scrutinised than young people have ever been.

0:06:23 > 0:06:27This is a cross section of the young - students, office workers,

0:06:27 > 0:06:32shop girls, apprentices enwrapped by rhythms that separate them from the old.

0:06:32 > 0:06:36Or are they so separate, so different from the way young people have always been?

0:06:36 > 0:06:40Certainly, they mature earlier physically, which creates problems.

0:06:40 > 0:06:45You go into a jazz festival, you can jump up and down as much as you like,

0:06:45 > 0:06:49and you can drink as much as you like without getting arrested.

0:06:49 > 0:06:51All you do is fall on the floor, fall on the grass!

0:06:56 > 0:06:57Freedom.

0:06:57 > 0:07:00Freedom for the individual.

0:07:00 > 0:07:02And...

0:07:02 > 0:07:05there wasn't much about after the war.

0:07:05 > 0:07:08When the first festivals started happening,

0:07:08 > 0:07:12rationing was still in place - food rationing, petrol rationing.

0:07:12 > 0:07:15You tend to forget this.

0:07:15 > 0:07:20You know, the young people that had grown up during the war

0:07:20 > 0:07:23had had a pretty frightening time.

0:07:27 > 0:07:31This new generation in search of a taste of freedom

0:07:31 > 0:07:34initially gathered in the nation's dance halls.

0:07:34 > 0:07:37But their hunger for an escape from convention

0:07:37 > 0:07:40led them out into the country in search of something different,

0:07:40 > 0:07:43even a young Rod Stewart.

0:07:44 > 0:07:48You couldn't have a rave-up in a dance hall.

0:07:48 > 0:07:52You had to walk across the floor and ask a girl to have a waltz or something.

0:07:52 > 0:07:55But if you were in a field,

0:07:55 > 0:07:57you felt free.

0:08:00 > 0:08:05The lawns of Palace House were given over to the sixth Beaulieu Jazz Festival.

0:08:05 > 0:08:11It's the event at which the fans forget the conventional life, let themselves go and dress like crazy.

0:08:14 > 0:08:19In 1956, an aristocrat by the name of Lord Montague

0:08:19 > 0:08:24began to put on a yearly jazz festival at his home in Hampshire.

0:08:24 > 0:08:27He had the facility of doing what he wanted to do at his own estate -

0:08:27 > 0:08:30no neighbours with their innocence and so on.

0:08:30 > 0:08:32And he fancied having a jazz do,

0:08:32 > 0:08:35and he would have the ability of doing it.

0:08:35 > 0:08:39And it was just a larger jazz concert.

0:08:39 > 0:08:44They were a bit like the art-school dance taken to the country,

0:08:44 > 0:08:45and people would dress weird.

0:08:45 > 0:08:48It was the Chelsea arts ball decanted into a meadow.

0:08:48 > 0:08:51It kind of shocked the locals and upset the sheep.

0:08:51 > 0:08:53It became very, very successful.

0:08:53 > 0:08:57And, sadly, sort of petered out

0:08:57 > 0:09:02because of the inability of certain people to behave themselves

0:09:02 > 0:09:05when they got a few pints into them.

0:09:07 > 0:09:13In 1960, a mixture of youthful overenthusiasm, tribalism and cider

0:09:13 > 0:09:16caused what would become known as the Battle of Beaulieu.

0:09:16 > 0:09:19Britain was about to catch its first glimpse

0:09:19 > 0:09:22of the anarchic potential of festival culture.

0:09:23 > 0:09:28The point about the battle, if there was a battle, a genuine battle,

0:09:28 > 0:09:32in Beaulieu, was between so-called trad fans and modern-jazz fans.

0:09:32 > 0:09:36But the theory was that the Acker Bilk fans got annoyed cos a modern-jazz band was on,

0:09:36 > 0:09:41and maybe they expected Acker to be on earlier, and he wasn't, or no-one told them.

0:09:41 > 0:09:43Maybe they didn't know Acker was on later.

0:09:43 > 0:09:47And they pushed and shoved, and they knocked down a television tower, a tower

0:09:47 > 0:09:50holding lights for the television people filming it, you see?

0:09:50 > 0:09:53What damage, in fact, do you think was done to BBC equipment?

0:09:53 > 0:09:58- We've lost something like seven or eight microphones.- Just stolen?

0:09:58 > 0:10:00Vanished overnight, virtually.

0:10:00 > 0:10:03Where they are, well, goodness only knows.

0:10:03 > 0:10:06It really become quite impossible to go on satisfactorily broadcasting?

0:10:06 > 0:10:09We had to come off the air five minutes early.

0:10:11 > 0:10:13The Battle of Beaulieu, we called it.

0:10:13 > 0:10:17And they all rushed the stage at one time and

0:10:17 > 0:10:19got on a piano to get up onto the roof.

0:10:19 > 0:10:22And the piano collapsed.

0:10:22 > 0:10:25People were trying to lift it up, to get it level.

0:10:25 > 0:10:29I said, "No, leave it, leave it, it's all right. I can manage like this."

0:10:29 > 0:10:32So they eventually got it up with some bloke underneath it

0:10:32 > 0:10:34with a couple of cracked ribs or something.

0:10:34 > 0:10:39Lord Montague said to me, "Play them the blues to calm them down."

0:10:39 > 0:10:42That wasn't going to do any good, but we played them blues.

0:10:42 > 0:10:45It didn't make any difference. They were still leaping about the place.

0:10:45 > 0:10:51I think you always have to remember that the Brits have always been

0:10:51 > 0:10:53very strong on gangs.

0:10:53 > 0:10:55One of the things I think festivals provided

0:10:55 > 0:10:58was a chance for those people to met, the people in the gang.

0:10:58 > 0:11:00It was just young people...

0:11:02 > 0:11:05..going through a mild form of protest, basically,

0:11:05 > 0:11:07that "We want our world".

0:11:09 > 0:11:10# Oh when the saints

0:11:10 > 0:11:12# Go marching in... #

0:11:12 > 0:11:18While these two jazz tribes skirmished, a more serious political movement was gathering pace

0:11:18 > 0:11:22as an increasingly politicised British youth took to the streets

0:11:22 > 0:11:23in the early Sixties.

0:11:26 > 0:11:30# Ban the bomb! Ban the bomb! Ban the bomb! Ban the bomb! #

0:11:30 > 0:11:35The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament marches, the Ban the Bomb marches, as they became dubbed,

0:11:35 > 0:11:39they again were a bunch of kids going out for a weekend,

0:11:39 > 0:11:42unsupervised, in the country,

0:11:42 > 0:11:48but rather than partying they were saving the world.

0:11:48 > 0:11:52We went on those marches because

0:11:52 > 0:11:56they were huge social gatherings -

0:11:56 > 0:11:58admittedly, all in a long queue.

0:11:58 > 0:12:03But they were gatherings of people of the same mind who were

0:12:03 > 0:12:08pretty determined that this was not going to go forward.

0:12:08 > 0:12:11They were a festival on the march.

0:12:12 > 0:12:15We marched from Aldermaston to London.

0:12:15 > 0:12:19They were festivals of singing, they were festivals of idea,

0:12:19 > 0:12:22they were a march for freedom.

0:12:26 > 0:12:29The heady mix of youth, politics and music were

0:12:29 > 0:12:33combining to create the rumblings of Britain's first countercultures.

0:12:42 > 0:12:49But as the Sixties were revolving, so was a generation's musical taste, and nowhere was this more apparent

0:12:49 > 0:12:54than at the National Jazz & Blues Festivals during the mid-Sixties.

0:12:54 > 0:13:00It had its own earthy kind of feel, if you like, and the music was from a very broad church.

0:13:00 > 0:13:06You had to be semiconscious not to realise that something was

0:13:06 > 0:13:08changing, something was afoot.

0:13:10 > 0:13:14There was an awful lot going on in the Sixties. I mean,

0:13:14 > 0:13:17it was such a time of development, of change.

0:13:17 > 0:13:21The jazz and the folk music was getting left behind.

0:13:21 > 0:13:24Everything was sort of switching around.

0:13:24 > 0:13:28It's interesting to see how you just look at how the bills changed,

0:13:28 > 0:13:31you see how they sort of drifted from being jazz into jazz

0:13:31 > 0:13:37and blues into being blues and into blues and rock and then into blues and rock and psychedelia.

0:13:39 > 0:13:42But it wasn't just the music that was changing.

0:13:42 > 0:13:46By 1967, duffel coats were being replaced by beads.

0:13:46 > 0:13:48Pipes were out, flowers were in.

0:13:48 > 0:13:53This was the Summer of Love, and the birth of the hippy was upon us.

0:13:53 > 0:13:56The actual Summer of Love, being '67,

0:13:56 > 0:14:03was probably when we in the bohemian world had finally married

0:14:03 > 0:14:07popular song with folk music and revolutionary ideas.

0:14:10 > 0:14:15The Flower People have their own taste in music, and their favourite

0:14:15 > 0:14:19performers are not necessarily big names in the pop charts.

0:14:19 > 0:14:22For them, the highlight of this festival

0:14:22 > 0:14:25was a relatively unknown singer called Arthur Brown.

0:14:25 > 0:14:27The hippy thing was,

0:14:27 > 0:14:32particularly in the beginning, a movement towards innocence, towards

0:14:32 > 0:14:39not feeling bound by duty, feeling that perhaps fun was a good element of life

0:14:39 > 0:14:43and that maybe that was a better judge

0:14:43 > 0:14:46than correctness or duty or anything else.

0:14:46 > 0:14:51- Would you call yourself a hippy? - Yes.

0:14:51 > 0:14:54Would you claim Arthur Brown for your own.

0:14:54 > 0:14:56I mean do you think he's one of you?

0:14:56 > 0:14:58Most definitely, yes. Yes.

0:14:58 > 0:15:02Um, he seems to speak for the hippies.

0:15:02 > 0:15:06# Call out the instigators

0:15:07 > 0:15:11# Because there's something in the air...#

0:15:11 > 0:15:13It was just kind of a rebellion.

0:15:13 > 0:15:17Everybody was still wearing bowler hats in those days, and Britain was very boring.

0:15:17 > 0:15:22You know, the national dish was sort of pie and mash with sort of nasty liquor on it,

0:15:22 > 0:15:26being served out of things that looked like public toilets.

0:15:27 > 0:15:30Peter Cook and Dudley Moore comes along.

0:15:30 > 0:15:34Now you can make fun of judges, you can make fun of the Queen and the police.

0:15:34 > 0:15:37So it's like Victorian Britain

0:15:37 > 0:15:42is finally being dismantled, Queen Victoria has finally gone.

0:15:42 > 0:15:45There was a sort of division...

0:15:45 > 0:15:52as it were, the pre-war generation, the people who wore suits,

0:15:52 > 0:15:55you know, to the people who wear jeans.

0:15:55 > 0:15:58MUSIC: "WHITE RABBIT" by Jefferson Airplane

0:15:59 > 0:16:04The whole Haight Ashbury scene in San Francisco, I think it spilled over into this country,

0:16:04 > 0:16:07and the alternative culture in America

0:16:07 > 0:16:10became the popular culture in this country.

0:16:11 > 0:16:17The hippy movement started, and LSD, which had been used originally

0:16:17 > 0:16:22for creating better war,

0:16:22 > 0:16:25became a tool for opening the heart,

0:16:25 > 0:16:27the mind, or at least seeing the heart.

0:16:27 > 0:16:31Then the music flowed from that place.

0:16:31 > 0:16:35# Remember

0:16:35 > 0:16:40# What the Dormouse said

0:16:40 > 0:16:44# Feed your head

0:16:44 > 0:16:48# Feed your head... #

0:16:48 > 0:16:52Turn on, tune in, drop out.

0:16:52 > 0:16:56APPLAUSE

0:16:58 > 0:17:02As the world suddenly changed from monochrome to technicolour,

0:17:02 > 0:17:10Peter Jenner and Andrew King decided to put on a series of free concerts in Hyde Park in the late 60s.

0:17:10 > 0:17:16With the like of Pink Floyd, Roy Harper and the Rolling Stones, the Hyde Park concerts

0:17:16 > 0:17:22became a place for the emerging British counterculture to turn on, tune in and drop out.

0:17:23 > 0:17:26# Nobody's got any money in the sun

0:17:27 > 0:17:31# Oh, dear me, what a terrible drag... #

0:17:31 > 0:17:34There's no question that the Hyde Park concerts

0:17:34 > 0:17:41happened because we read about there being concerts in San Francisco, in Golden Gate Park.

0:17:41 > 0:17:44Hyde Park was beautiful - right by the Serpentine,

0:17:44 > 0:17:47and the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, T. Rex,

0:17:47 > 0:17:50endless bands which played there -

0:17:50 > 0:17:52and it was a very, very beautiful scene.

0:17:52 > 0:17:56# ..All the folkie student population wearing rucksacks... #

0:17:56 > 0:18:03That day in the Cockpit at Hyde Park was amazing.

0:18:03 > 0:18:05I'd never played to that amount of people before.

0:18:05 > 0:18:10There were 10,000 people there, which was amazing for that period.

0:18:10 > 0:18:13It was the high noon of our lives.

0:18:13 > 0:18:17# ..Than a Chinese wrestler's jockstrap cooked in chip fat

0:18:17 > 0:18:19# On a greasy day... #

0:18:19 > 0:18:22It was like a mushrooming moment

0:18:22 > 0:18:26that went on seemingly forever.

0:18:26 > 0:18:33Everything seemed to be bright and in the process of awakening.

0:18:45 > 0:18:51If they're free, if they're put on by amateurs, then you don't have security.

0:18:51 > 0:18:55You know, you don't have fences round, you don't know how many people are there.

0:19:00 > 0:19:03No barriers, no security.

0:19:05 > 0:19:07There were about three policemen.

0:19:07 > 0:19:12Most of the free festivals were policed by Hell's Angels at the time.

0:19:12 > 0:19:15Nobody needed the police force or anything like that.

0:19:15 > 0:19:18And everybody looked after it well.

0:19:24 > 0:19:26People were there for the afternoon.

0:19:26 > 0:19:29They didn't have to be fed, they didn't have to be managed.

0:19:29 > 0:19:31Money didn't have to be collected.

0:19:33 > 0:19:36The press were climbing up the back of the stage to take pictures,

0:19:36 > 0:19:43and the only security you had were Hell's Angels, who chained the press photographers to get them down.

0:19:51 > 0:19:53In some of the later festivals,

0:19:53 > 0:19:56particularly as it got to the Rolling Stones festival,

0:19:56 > 0:20:00there were hundreds of thousands of people,

0:20:00 > 0:20:05and you stood on the stage there, at those festivals, and you thought,

0:20:05 > 0:20:08"This is unreal."

0:20:10 > 0:20:12# Oh, yeah, yeah... #

0:20:13 > 0:20:16When I went to the Stones, I went backstage,

0:20:16 > 0:20:19and there was almost like a kind of royal garden party going on!

0:20:19 > 0:20:24I don't know if there actually were tea and scones, but it felt as though there should be.

0:20:24 > 0:20:27And it was incredibly nice, you know?

0:20:27 > 0:20:29MUSIC: "I'M YOURS AND I'M HERS" by The Rolling Stones

0:20:40 > 0:20:42# She's gotten bigger

0:20:43 > 0:20:47# Somebody else's too... #

0:20:47 > 0:20:51You know, the Stones show was just amazing.

0:20:51 > 0:20:54I mean, there was amazing little kind of visual things,

0:20:54 > 0:20:59like an entire oak tree just filled with people all the way up.

0:20:59 > 0:21:03It was gorgeous. Nothing really mattered very much.

0:21:03 > 0:21:06It was like a gathering of the clans, in a sense.

0:21:07 > 0:21:12It was like, in a way, that's an idea of festival being about community

0:21:12 > 0:21:16rather than about just going to a big concert in the open air.

0:21:25 > 0:21:29This growing sense of a new society was perhaps most apparent

0:21:29 > 0:21:33in the States at Woodstock festival in 1969.

0:21:33 > 0:21:40The sheer volume of people wanting to attend forced the organisers to declare it a free event.

0:21:40 > 0:21:43The government declared it a national disaster.

0:21:43 > 0:21:49This template of a free festival would become hugely significant for the British hippies.

0:21:51 > 0:21:55# By the time we got to Woodstock

0:21:55 > 0:22:00# We were half a million strong

0:22:00 > 0:22:03# And everywhere there was song... #

0:22:03 > 0:22:06Definitely, Woodstock changed a lot of things.

0:22:06 > 0:22:09There was a school of thought, which was

0:22:09 > 0:22:11give the music to the people free

0:22:11 > 0:22:15and sell the records afterwards in the shops.

0:22:15 > 0:22:20Why charge young people who can't really afford it to hear something

0:22:20 > 0:22:28that is of their own generation being generated by themselves?

0:22:28 > 0:22:30Why charge them money to do it?

0:22:32 > 0:22:35# ..We are stardust... #

0:22:35 > 0:22:38The thing I think that we Brits learned from

0:22:38 > 0:22:42first Monterey and later Woodstock is that all things were possible.

0:22:42 > 0:22:47That gave the business big ideas, but it also brought,

0:22:47 > 0:22:52it brought the very best of the rock'n'roll of the period

0:22:52 > 0:22:53to an awful lot of people.

0:23:04 > 0:23:07# Once upon a time You dressed so fine

0:23:07 > 0:23:10# Threw the bums a dime in your prime

0:23:10 > 0:23:13# Didn't you? #

0:23:15 > 0:23:19Whilst free music was a lovely idea, the commercial potential

0:23:19 > 0:23:23of festival culture was becoming increasingly apparent.

0:23:24 > 0:23:27# ..You used to

0:23:27 > 0:23:28# Laugh about... #

0:23:28 > 0:23:31As Woodstock was unfolding, a group of young entrepreneurs from

0:23:31 > 0:23:35the Isle of Wight were attempting to produce a commercial festival

0:23:35 > 0:23:37that would be its British rival.

0:23:39 > 0:23:41# Now you don't seem so proud... #

0:23:41 > 0:23:46Our aim was to be business-like and put on a first-class event that

0:23:46 > 0:23:49people would enjoy and that we could make money out of,

0:23:49 > 0:23:52you know, we could make a living. We weren't looking to exploit it,

0:23:52 > 0:23:54we were just trying to do a decent thing,

0:23:54 > 0:23:57and we believed that if we could do a decent thing, then next year

0:23:57 > 0:24:01people would want to come back and we could do it again and again.

0:24:01 > 0:24:03The gigantic, three-day pop festival at Woodside Bay.

0:24:03 > 0:24:06It marked the momentary re-appearance of Bob Zimmerman,

0:24:06 > 0:24:09alias Dylan, after three years in seclusion.

0:24:09 > 0:24:11# How does it feel? #

0:24:11 > 0:24:13First, to get Dylan was just amazing.

0:24:13 > 0:24:18I mean, it was absolutely staggering that we had that good fortune.

0:24:18 > 0:24:20We made an offer that was appealing,

0:24:20 > 0:24:25involving a holiday for Dylan and his family and a trip

0:24:25 > 0:24:28over on the QE2 and all this sort of thing, and it chimed in with him

0:24:28 > 0:24:31feeling that he wanted to get back to work.

0:24:31 > 0:24:34And Dylan set sail on the QE2 on 15th August,

0:24:34 > 0:24:38which is the Friday of the Woodstock festival.

0:24:38 > 0:24:43Dylan should have been at Woodstock. He should have been the number one star at Woodstock.

0:24:43 > 0:24:48I've heard it said here today by some of your fans that the new Bob Dylan is a bit of a square.

0:24:48 > 0:24:49Is this true?

0:24:49 > 0:24:51LAUGHTER

0:24:51 > 0:24:54You'll have to ask the fans.

0:24:54 > 0:24:56# ..Come on without

0:24:56 > 0:24:59# Come on within

0:24:59 > 0:25:03# You'll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn

0:25:03 > 0:25:07# Come on without

0:25:07 > 0:25:09# Come on within

0:25:09 > 0:25:13# You'll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn

0:25:13 > 0:25:17# Whoa, you know, I can do just like the rest

0:25:17 > 0:25:19# You know I like my sugar sweet... #

0:25:19 > 0:25:23We'd made a name for the Isle of Wight festival

0:25:23 > 0:25:29as an international event of absolute supreme stature

0:25:29 > 0:25:35by having the biggest name in the counterculture appear.

0:25:35 > 0:25:37It was a bit like winning the lottery, almost.

0:25:37 > 0:25:41It was that much of a long shot, and it happened.

0:25:41 > 0:25:44The Isle of Wight Festival had been a financial success,

0:25:44 > 0:25:47and as the Sixties gave way to a new decade,

0:25:47 > 0:25:52in 1970 the Foulk brothers aimed for the stars

0:25:52 > 0:25:54and managed to book half of them in the process.

0:25:54 > 0:26:01An estimated 600,000 people took the ferry to the event of a lifetime.

0:26:04 > 0:26:07Arriving for the Isle of Wight,

0:26:07 > 0:26:10it was just like everywhere you looked there was

0:26:10 > 0:26:14thousands and thousands of young people with backpacks,

0:26:14 > 0:26:18sleeping bags, hundreds and hundreds of them just...

0:26:18 > 0:26:23moving in waves towards this place. It was amazing.

0:26:23 > 0:26:27I remember walking for miles to arrive there and then walking over this hill

0:26:27 > 0:26:30and seeing 600,000 people in front of me

0:26:30 > 0:26:34and realising all these other people loved the same music as me.

0:26:34 > 0:26:36The island cannot cope with the quantity of people.

0:26:36 > 0:26:40I mean, whether it's 150 or 50,000 bishops,

0:26:40 > 0:26:43it still cannot cope with the quantity.

0:26:43 > 0:26:46I want to keep the Isle of Wight the same as it was

0:26:46 > 0:26:48when I was born here 75 years ago.

0:26:48 > 0:26:54If you have a festival with all the stops pulled out,

0:26:54 > 0:27:01kids running about naked, fucking in the bushes and doing every damn thing

0:27:01 > 0:27:04that they feel inclined to do,

0:27:04 > 0:27:08I don't know if that's particularly good for the body politic.

0:27:08 > 0:27:12'Lord Baden-Powell must have been turning in his grave, but the camp fires helped

0:27:12 > 0:27:16'many of them to lose their cool, together with the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation

0:27:16 > 0:27:19'throbbing its highly amplified message to the world.'

0:27:23 > 0:27:26The Isle of Wight residents must have been terrified.

0:27:26 > 0:27:29That's an invading army of 500,000 people.

0:27:29 > 0:27:32Somebody might have had the odd flower nicked out of a garden,

0:27:32 > 0:27:34a runner bean stolen or something,

0:27:34 > 0:27:36but I don't think there was any trouble for the residents at all.

0:27:36 > 0:27:39# Take a little dope

0:27:39 > 0:27:43# And walk out in the air

0:27:43 > 0:27:47# Stars are all connected to the brain... #

0:27:50 > 0:27:54Inside the arena, a rippling mass of humanity got its rocks off

0:27:54 > 0:28:00to the likes of Miles Davis, The Doors, Joni Mitchell and The Who.

0:28:24 > 0:28:29I really wanted to see Jimi Hendrix, you know.

0:28:29 > 0:28:31That was why I went there.

0:28:31 > 0:28:34And he was absolutely amazing.

0:28:34 > 0:28:38Absolutely out of this world. On another planet.

0:28:41 > 0:28:42You know, Hendrix...

0:28:42 > 0:28:45that was just blistering.

0:28:45 > 0:28:50He put stuff together so perfectly off the top of his head, you know?

0:29:12 > 0:29:15# Well, I stand up next to a mountain

0:29:15 > 0:29:19# I chop it down with the edge of my hand... #

0:29:26 > 0:29:30# ..Well, I stand up next to a mountain

0:29:30 > 0:29:33# Chop it down with the edge of my hand... #

0:29:38 > 0:29:41The bit that I do remember is a firework going up

0:29:41 > 0:29:44at the end of Hendrix, when it looked like the stage was on fire,

0:29:44 > 0:29:48and it went up into the roof of the stage,

0:29:48 > 0:29:51and there was clouds of smoke billowing out.

0:29:51 > 0:29:53And somebody's on the mic, saying,

0:29:53 > 0:29:55"The stage is on fire, the stage is on fire.

0:29:55 > 0:29:59"Can we have a fire appliance here? The stage is on fire."

0:29:59 > 0:30:02Sort of this droning voice going on.

0:30:02 > 0:30:05And my heart sank at that point. I thought, "Well, this is it.

0:30:05 > 0:30:08"The stage is going to burn down. This is the end of it."

0:30:08 > 0:30:13# This is the end Beautiful friend... #

0:30:15 > 0:30:19Outside the perimeter fence, the number of disgruntled people

0:30:19 > 0:30:22unwilling to pay entry was growing by the day.

0:30:22 > 0:30:25As makeshift shantytowns emerged,

0:30:25 > 0:30:27the area became known as Desolation Row.

0:30:29 > 0:30:33Everybody had gone into these trees that were all overgrown

0:30:33 > 0:30:38and higgledy-piggledy, and they built themselves little shelters in there.

0:30:38 > 0:30:42So you had the place teeming with Hobbits that

0:30:42 > 0:30:45were all living in the lane.

0:30:46 > 0:30:49And in fact, you had a better view of the stage from the hill

0:30:49 > 0:30:52than you did from the enclosure, where you had to pay.

0:30:52 > 0:30:55So we put out a flyer about this, then all hell broke loose.

0:30:58 > 0:31:03The hippy ideology of free music was about to come face to face

0:31:03 > 0:31:06with the commercial reality of the Isle of Wight,

0:31:06 > 0:31:10and the fence became a potent symbol of that divide.

0:31:10 > 0:31:13You will not be allowed in without a ticket,

0:31:13 > 0:31:16so please have a ticket. Have it ready to show the stewards.

0:31:22 > 0:31:26There was this anarchic sort of feeling about the whole thing,

0:31:26 > 0:31:29where people were saying, "Well, this is a rip-off.

0:31:29 > 0:31:31"Tear the walls down. It should be free."

0:31:31 > 0:31:36They weren't taking into account that perhaps the whole thing cost a lot of money to put on.

0:31:36 > 0:31:39We're coming in the shadow of Woodstock here in 1970,

0:31:39 > 0:31:43which had been declared free and had been thought to be an amazingly cool event,

0:31:43 > 0:31:47because it was free, and that we were uncool because we weren't free.

0:31:47 > 0:31:50So there was that comparison some would make,

0:31:50 > 0:31:53including one of the people that spoke from the stage.

0:31:53 > 0:31:57I've been to Woodstock, and I dug it very much.

0:31:57 > 0:32:01I've been to about ten fucking festivals, and I love music.

0:32:01 > 0:32:03I just think one thing -

0:32:03 > 0:32:08this festival business is becoming a psychedelic concentration camp!

0:32:19 > 0:32:25It was like a sort of a cattle market inside the walls, and then there were

0:32:25 > 0:32:29all these French anarchists saying, "Tear down the walls!"

0:32:29 > 0:32:33It really was like the barbarians attacking the gate.

0:32:39 > 0:32:44It was somewhere between chaos, anarchy and Monty Python.

0:32:44 > 0:32:47# No reason to get excited

0:32:47 > 0:32:51# The thief he kindly spoke... #

0:32:51 > 0:32:54We've got no money for the artists! What are we going to do?

0:32:54 > 0:32:56I could see it from the stage.

0:32:56 > 0:32:58You'd see it burning in the distance.

0:32:58 > 0:33:02You've got to understand, it's, like, half a mile away.

0:33:02 > 0:33:07But even when I finished a song, I could hear

0:33:07 > 0:33:11the Celtic nations going at it.

0:33:11 > 0:33:14I could tell. It was just like Braveheart or something.

0:33:17 > 0:33:20On its last day, the festival was declared free,

0:33:20 > 0:33:23and despite it being a triumph musically,

0:33:23 > 0:33:27many left the Isle of Wight with a sour taste in their mouth.

0:33:27 > 0:33:30# All along the watchtower... #

0:33:32 > 0:33:37It was in the end destroyed in a sense by the anarchy thing,

0:33:37 > 0:33:39and they blew it. In a sense,

0:33:39 > 0:33:43the world changed after that. In my mind,

0:33:43 > 0:33:48the Isle of Wight was the end of something rather than the beginning of something.

0:33:48 > 0:33:54At the end of that festival, I was standing inside, having got inside,

0:33:54 > 0:33:58in front of the main stage there in literally about two or three feet

0:33:58 > 0:34:04of beer cans and kicking them around and thinking to myself,

0:34:04 > 0:34:08"There's got to be a better way of doing a festival than this,"

0:34:08 > 0:34:10because, basically, no-one was happy.

0:34:10 > 0:34:13You know, the bands weren't happy, the management weren't happy,

0:34:13 > 0:34:18the people weren't happy, and it was a clash of ideals.

0:34:45 > 0:34:49# As gentle times... #

0:34:52 > 0:34:55# ..Go rolling... #

0:34:55 > 0:35:00As a new era dawned, an aristocratic hippy by the name of Andrew Kerr

0:35:00 > 0:35:04had an idea that he hoped would reconnect festivals

0:35:04 > 0:35:07with Britain's ancient, more spiritual past.

0:35:09 > 0:35:12I was very keen that the thing should be peaceful

0:35:12 > 0:35:18and it should be a spiritual revival. That's what I was after.

0:35:18 > 0:35:23And because I saw the spirit in the crowd at the Isle of Wight,

0:35:23 > 0:35:27let's reproduce it when the money isn't involved with it.

0:35:27 > 0:35:29Do you see what I mean?

0:35:29 > 0:35:33# Together in the sand... #

0:35:35 > 0:35:38I think Andrew Kerr was the first who decided that

0:35:38 > 0:35:42this was a sort of place for a gathering on a huge scale,

0:35:42 > 0:35:45which should be free to everybody.

0:35:45 > 0:35:48If you ever climb the Tor on a misty day and you find yourself

0:35:48 > 0:35:53up in the clouds above the rest of the world, islands popping up

0:35:53 > 0:35:57out of the sea, as it were, it's an extraordinary sight.

0:35:57 > 0:36:02# ..Do send their distant call... #

0:36:02 > 0:36:06If ever there was to be a sort of rebirth

0:36:06 > 0:36:09of the spiritual nature of Britain,

0:36:09 > 0:36:14then it should be at the spiritual heart of the country, in Glastonbury.

0:36:15 > 0:36:20Having found the perfect location, it was suggested Andrew get in touch

0:36:20 > 0:36:24with a local dairy farmer who had put on a festival at his farm

0:36:24 > 0:36:26in Pilton the previous year.

0:36:26 > 0:36:31He was a strange hippy, but he was quite a good-looking one,

0:36:31 > 0:36:35and he was quite charming, and it didn't take much convincing.

0:36:35 > 0:36:40I think we almost immediately got on, and I said,

0:36:40 > 0:36:42"Look, I want to put on this festival.

0:36:42 > 0:36:45"It's going to be free, all the bands are going to play for nothing,

0:36:45 > 0:36:47"and it's going to be absolutely beautiful."

0:36:55 > 0:37:00I mean, there was three or four of us that were involved with it, and it was quite a romantic idea.

0:37:00 > 0:37:03Basically, Arabella came into some money,

0:37:03 > 0:37:05and she virtually paid for it,

0:37:05 > 0:37:09so the three of us, I suppose, financed it, really.

0:37:09 > 0:37:12So it wasn't really free, it was just free

0:37:12 > 0:37:16to the people that came to it.

0:37:19 > 0:37:26And they really believed that they were going to change the world.

0:37:26 > 0:37:29But they were pretty stoned, though, that's the thing.

0:37:29 > 0:37:32I mentioned wandering around through the surrounding

0:37:32 > 0:37:36cornfields before, and there's still one or two people doing it.

0:37:36 > 0:37:40Probably they're all out of their heads, anyway, tripped out completely.

0:37:40 > 0:37:45The thing about Glastonbury Fayre, really the very first one, was it was just fucking magical.

0:37:50 > 0:37:57We came past the farm and over and looked down into the valley.

0:37:57 > 0:38:00There was the Pyramid Stage, all lit up,

0:38:00 > 0:38:04and Traffic just out there playing music.

0:38:05 > 0:38:08# Let me in, baby I don't know what you got

0:38:08 > 0:38:11# But you'd better take it easy Cos this place is hot

0:38:11 > 0:38:15# And I'm so glad we made it

0:38:15 > 0:38:18# So glad we made it

0:38:18 > 0:38:22# You gotta gimme, gimme, gimme some lovin'... #

0:38:25 > 0:38:28It was like, "Wow!" You know?

0:38:28 > 0:38:29"Is this for real?" You know?

0:38:29 > 0:38:31Cos this is what we wanted.

0:38:40 > 0:38:43Turn the bass drum down a bit!

0:38:43 > 0:38:48Glastonbury Fayre in 1971 was a free-festival experiment.

0:38:48 > 0:38:52It was to be more than just a free concert in a field.

0:38:52 > 0:38:57A uniquely British blend of spirituality, LSD and pop culture

0:38:57 > 0:39:00combined to create something truly original.

0:39:04 > 0:39:07The atmosphere was absolutely chaotic, it was just wonderful,

0:39:07 > 0:39:09because there was no security,

0:39:09 > 0:39:12there was no backstage or anything like that, no smart caravans

0:39:12 > 0:39:15or anything like that. Completely haphazard.

0:39:15 > 0:39:17But it worked.

0:39:21 > 0:39:24People ring up and say, "Can we come and talk to you?

0:39:24 > 0:39:26"We'd like to do such-and-such."

0:39:26 > 0:39:29And we had healers and spiritual leaders

0:39:29 > 0:39:36and ghost hunters and maze builders and every kind of walk of life.

0:39:36 > 0:39:40# ..Something to make you so happy... #

0:39:40 > 0:39:43The first Glastonbury Fayre had the most beautiful stage I've ever seen.

0:39:43 > 0:39:46It was this pyramid built out of scaffolding and then covered

0:39:46 > 0:39:49in polythene sheeting, which reflected the light,

0:39:49 > 0:39:52and it was gorgeous. And it was very, very big.

0:39:57 > 0:40:00And there were two guys, they had a piece of drain attached

0:40:00 > 0:40:03to the scaffolding, and a large iron spike,

0:40:03 > 0:40:07which they were about to drive with sledgehammers into the ground.

0:40:07 > 0:40:12I suppose to tap in to the convergence of ley lines under the stage.

0:40:12 > 0:40:15And one of them looked at the other and said,

0:40:15 > 0:40:17"Of course, we might split the earth in half."

0:40:17 > 0:40:23And one said, "Do you think so?" And he said, "Mm, maybe, I don't know."

0:40:23 > 0:40:27"What the fuck." Then he hit it with a hammer and the earth didn't split in half.

0:40:27 > 0:40:31But there was a moment when I thought, "This is going to be really interesting."

0:40:34 > 0:40:40Somehow or another, in spite of all that sort of looniness that was going on,

0:40:40 > 0:40:43it still happened, which is extraordinary.

0:40:44 > 0:40:49# Oh, the heart that keeps on changing... #

0:40:57 > 0:41:03Everybody was doing something. And to me, it suddenly clicked,

0:41:03 > 0:41:07it was more like the bands that were doing it, all knew each other.

0:41:07 > 0:41:10So there was a reason to do it for free.

0:41:15 > 0:41:21In the audience there was an American with a cockerel on his shoulder.

0:41:21 > 0:41:23He was known as Chicken Man.

0:41:23 > 0:41:27And he'd saved it from the slaughterhouse.

0:41:34 > 0:41:36I thought a lot of it was very weird.

0:41:36 > 0:41:41It looked like a sort of a get together of intergalactic aliens

0:41:41 > 0:41:45and sort of really weird looking people.

0:41:45 > 0:41:48I wasn't really sure if I was hallucinating or not,

0:41:48 > 0:41:51or if this was actually what was really there.

0:41:53 > 0:41:58# Sometimes when I am feeling as big as the land

0:41:58 > 0:42:00# With the velvet hill

0:42:00 > 0:42:02# In the small of my back

0:42:02 > 0:42:05# And my hands are playing the sand... #

0:42:05 > 0:42:09It did have an air of innocence about it.

0:42:09 > 0:42:12It had an air of exploration.

0:42:12 > 0:42:15Nobody knew what was going to come from it.

0:42:15 > 0:42:21It was a combination of ancient Druidism and modern music,

0:42:21 > 0:42:24and confronting the modern world.

0:42:27 > 0:42:31# ..Sometimes when I am feeling... #

0:42:31 > 0:42:35Like any other family, the hippies can occasionally be seen taking afternoon tea.

0:42:35 > 0:42:39The sandwiches and fruit cake are on offer most afternoons

0:42:39 > 0:42:43at the home of Miss Christine, a determined lady of over 80.

0:42:43 > 0:42:47She lives in Glastonbury and is a staunch defender of the hippies.

0:42:47 > 0:42:51She feeds them, has them to stay and encourages them to take baths.

0:42:51 > 0:42:57The village people were sort of very broad-minded, I think,

0:42:57 > 0:42:58looking back at it now.

0:42:58 > 0:43:03There were people walking about nude with top hats on

0:43:03 > 0:43:07and knocking on people's doors in the village.

0:43:07 > 0:43:09Really, it was quite horrendous.

0:43:09 > 0:43:12But they did think it was funny.

0:43:12 > 0:43:17It would be very nice to see, not just Glastonbury Fayre happen,

0:43:17 > 0:43:19but lots of small festivals happening

0:43:19 > 0:43:24with the same motive. You see, we can't tell

0:43:24 > 0:43:28what good will come out of it until we try it.

0:43:31 > 0:43:36At Glastonbury Fayre, some people felt they had found something special,

0:43:36 > 0:43:39a glimpse of an entirely different kind of life.

0:43:49 > 0:43:53# Please don't dominate the rap, Jack

0:43:53 > 0:43:57# If you've got nothing new to say

0:43:57 > 0:44:01# If you please, go back up to check

0:44:01 > 0:44:04# This train's going to run today. #

0:44:05 > 0:44:09Elsewhere in Britain, commercial festivals such as Wheeley and Bickershaw,

0:44:09 > 0:44:11were attempting to pick up

0:44:11 > 0:44:15where the Isle of Wight and Bath festivals had left off.

0:44:15 > 0:44:18Bickershaw, Lancashire, a mining village on the road to Wigan Pier.

0:44:18 > 0:44:231,500 people, a pit, a pub and not much else.

0:44:23 > 0:44:25A place where nothing ever happens.

0:44:25 > 0:44:30Until May 1972, when the Bickershaw Pop Festival made it a mecca.

0:44:33 > 0:44:36In terms of the festival then, are you going to be ready on time?

0:44:36 > 0:44:37It looks as though you're not.

0:44:37 > 0:44:41Well, what would convince you that we were?

0:44:41 > 0:44:44If the fences were up, the stage was up, everything was ready.

0:44:44 > 0:44:45What fences are not up?

0:44:48 > 0:44:53They're gates that are not up. Fences are up.

0:44:53 > 0:44:57The accusation that this isn't ready, if you don't know anything at all about festivals,

0:44:57 > 0:44:59then you might make that statement.

0:44:59 > 0:45:03If you know anything about festivals, then you'd say we're about up to date.

0:45:03 > 0:45:06# My younger brother

0:45:06 > 0:45:09# went to jail... #

0:45:09 > 0:45:11But something wasn't quite right.

0:45:15 > 0:45:20Amateur businessmen, poor organisation and often horrendous weather,

0:45:20 > 0:45:25meant that commercial ventures like Bickershaw never quite established themselves in the early '70s.

0:45:30 > 0:45:33But for those that had seen the light at the free-spirited

0:45:33 > 0:45:38Glastonbury Fayre, festivals were now becoming less about entertainment,

0:45:38 > 0:45:43and more about an alternative nomadic way of life.

0:45:48 > 0:45:52The Sixties' hippy dream of a new society was becoming an alternative

0:45:52 > 0:45:58reality for a growing number of people, who began to make a new life on the road.

0:46:03 > 0:46:05# Leaves are falling all around

0:46:07 > 0:46:10# Time I was on my way...

0:46:13 > 0:46:15# Thanks to you, I'm much obliged

0:46:17 > 0:46:19# For such a pleasant stay

0:46:22 > 0:46:26# But now it's time for me to go... #

0:46:27 > 0:46:32I think as a result of Glastonbury Fayre in 1971,

0:46:32 > 0:46:39a great many people then thought that they had experienced some sort of life-changing situation,

0:46:39 > 0:46:44and it prompted them to want to go and set up on their own,

0:46:44 > 0:46:46and take over, if they could, common spaces,

0:46:46 > 0:46:54what was left of them, and really rekindle the idea of communality, if you like.

0:47:01 > 0:47:02I think that was the beginning of

0:47:02 > 0:47:07the formation of alternative communities.

0:47:07 > 0:47:12Certainly in the West Country, around Glastonbury, you found people

0:47:12 > 0:47:16trying to live in yurts or living in caravans.

0:47:16 > 0:47:19People starting to follow the festival trail.

0:47:19 > 0:47:25Free festivals was a lifestyle thing that we wanted to develop

0:47:25 > 0:47:30a way of living out of, rather than just the music thing.

0:47:39 > 0:47:43We were like a whole generation on the move, all these people who,

0:47:43 > 0:47:47you know, a lot of people would travel from festival to festival.

0:47:47 > 0:47:50They basically lived at festivals.

0:47:50 > 0:47:53They'd stay on afterwards and clean up after them.

0:47:56 > 0:48:01As far as free festivals were concerned, we were the travelling festival.

0:48:01 > 0:48:07When we turned up with vehicles and our families, got our stalls out and put them up, you know,

0:48:07 > 0:48:11we traded with the local population.

0:48:11 > 0:48:16A whole group of like-minded people who would try

0:48:16 > 0:48:22to make a living at festivals by making stuff and selling things.

0:48:22 > 0:48:27I remember walking in to one, and within 25 minutes I was in charge

0:48:27 > 0:48:31of an organic stall.

0:48:31 > 0:48:34And the guy didn't come back for two hours.

0:48:34 > 0:48:36So I mean, you know, it was like that.

0:48:36 > 0:48:38You just didn't have a...

0:48:38 > 0:48:40Like, "I'm playing music."

0:48:40 > 0:48:42You were part of all of it.

0:48:49 > 0:48:54As the free festival movement gathered momentum in the early '70s,

0:48:54 > 0:49:01this new alternative culture began looking for a spiritual home, and converged for a series of festivals

0:49:01 > 0:49:05in the somewhat provocative surroundings of Windsor Great Park.

0:49:05 > 0:49:08The spirit there was quite incredible, it really was.

0:49:08 > 0:49:11It was just amazing. The whole feeling.

0:49:11 > 0:49:13People were there and could hardly

0:49:13 > 0:49:15believe this was happening in England.

0:49:15 > 0:49:17And what's more, on the Queen's back door step!

0:49:17 > 0:49:21I went down there with a couple of mates. We hitched down there with a little old army tent.

0:49:21 > 0:49:26Eventually got to Windsor station, and as we left the railway station there was just a line of hippies,

0:49:26 > 0:49:30all the way down through the town, off to the Great Park.

0:49:30 > 0:49:32And there were joints going backwards and forwards.

0:49:32 > 0:49:34You'd take a puff and pass it on.

0:49:34 > 0:49:36As we arrived on the Great Park,

0:49:36 > 0:49:40there were Hawkwind playing on the grass. It was just... It was like going home.

0:49:40 > 0:49:45MUSIC: "Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear In Smoke)" by Hawkwind

0:50:02 > 0:50:05# Sick of politicians, harassment and laws

0:50:05 > 0:50:08# All we do is get screwed up by other people's flaws... #

0:50:08 > 0:50:10At Windsor we had a chap who turned up with a briefcase.

0:50:10 > 0:50:13Came up to me and said, "Do you stage manage?"

0:50:13 > 0:50:17I said, "No, I'm just doing the lights. I don't know what a stage manager is actually."

0:50:17 > 0:50:22And he said, "I've got this to give out." And I was going, "Oh, right."

0:50:22 > 0:50:26You could see out across this great swathe of the audience at Windsor.

0:50:26 > 0:50:32And I was thinking, hmm. Between numbers I said, "There's a chap here that's got some...

0:50:32 > 0:50:36"if anybody would like something to get high on, just come to the front of the stage."

0:50:36 > 0:50:42And there was a huge... People started getting up one by one and it just got mad.

0:50:42 > 0:50:46We had to withdraw.

0:50:46 > 0:50:52The singer pointed out to the crowd there was a drug squad officer walking through the crowd.

0:50:52 > 0:50:55Again, we weren't prepared for the level of response.

0:50:55 > 0:51:01About 500 people started moving towards this guy, who promptly legged it.

0:51:01 > 0:51:03Pulled out his radio - what a giveaway -

0:51:03 > 0:51:06Black Mariah pulled up on the road 200 yards away,

0:51:06 > 0:51:14and I'd never seen anybody cross 200 yards faster in all my life, with 400 irate hippies chasing him!

0:51:14 > 0:51:21I think Windsor set out to be a carnival festival, but also a political statement.

0:51:21 > 0:51:27If you want to really get up the nose of the authorities, have a carnival in the Queen's back garden.

0:51:27 > 0:51:32It was very funny, very amusing. But as usual, the pawns got hurt.

0:51:34 > 0:51:40What had started out as a bit of fun quickly turned sour when, in 1974,

0:51:40 > 0:51:44a bemused Government decided they could no longer ignore this growing movement.

0:51:44 > 0:51:49Obviously somebody had decided they needed to show the hippies a lesson or two.

0:51:57 > 0:52:01NEWSREEL: 'The police were among the fans before most of them knew it.

0:52:01 > 0:52:05'When the young people wakened up to what was happening to them,

0:52:05 > 0:52:07'most accepted the inevitable and left then.

0:52:07 > 0:52:11'But a large minority resisted, first by forming percussion

0:52:11 > 0:52:14'groups in front of unappreciative lines of policemen.'

0:52:21 > 0:52:24NEWSREEL: 'There have been 1,002 other convictions.

0:52:24 > 0:52:29'As a result, both the Berkshire County Council and the Maidenhead

0:52:29 > 0:52:31'and Windsor Borough Council, took the view they had a duty

0:52:31 > 0:52:36'to take all possible steps to prevent a recurrence of such a deplorable event.'

0:52:42 > 0:52:48They moved in at dawn, and they were just waking people up, smashing down tents.

0:52:48 > 0:52:51They were pretty angry, I would say.

0:52:51 > 0:52:54They wanted to re-establish their authority.

0:52:54 > 0:52:59Or perhaps the Queen had said, "Get those squatters out of my garden!"

0:52:59 > 0:53:04So what happened after Windsor was that there was a negotiated deal.

0:53:04 > 0:53:07It was obvious they realised that they had gone too far.

0:53:07 > 0:53:12And they gave us this huge RAF base called Watchfield in 1975.

0:53:12 > 0:53:18NEWSREEL: 'Meanwhile, in Watchfield village, Oxfordshire, the locals citizens prepare for a long siege.'

0:53:18 > 0:53:22MUSIC: "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath

0:53:32 > 0:53:36It's perhaps to be expected that the people of Watchfield, particularly

0:53:36 > 0:53:40the older ones, don't like the idea of the festival one little bit.

0:53:40 > 0:53:44Well, the general reaction is pure unadulerated shock and disgust.

0:53:49 > 0:53:52It was a bit odd to see police wandering around, because

0:53:52 > 0:53:55that was part of the deal - we had to have police on site.

0:53:55 > 0:53:59I remember once somebody, some naked guy, standing in front of

0:53:59 > 0:54:06three policemen, directing a hundred hippies holding hands, dancing around them in an anti-clockwise direction

0:54:06 > 0:54:10to sort of take away all their bad vibes. I mean, it was all light-hearted really.

0:54:10 > 0:54:16We actually played for something like seven hours that night, and there were maybe 20,000 people.

0:54:16 > 0:54:18And they just did not stop.

0:54:18 > 0:54:21It was an all-night party right through till dawn, till

0:54:21 > 0:54:25the blisters on my fingers got too much to handle.

0:54:25 > 0:54:28It felt a bit artificial -

0:54:28 > 0:54:30probably because it was.

0:54:30 > 0:54:31It didn't...

0:54:31 > 0:54:37because it had had this sort of Government sanction and it had been allocated a spot,

0:54:37 > 0:54:42this airfield, it didn't have quite the same feeling of spontaneity

0:54:42 > 0:54:47as some of the other festivals. It felt a little odd.

0:54:47 > 0:54:53At Watchfield, the freaks, mystics and nomads had been given space to do as they pleased.

0:54:53 > 0:54:57But it was on the Government's terms, and not a particularly inspiring site.

0:54:57 > 0:55:02The search continued for a spiritual home for the free festival movement.

0:55:02 > 0:55:06ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC

0:55:28 > 0:55:32Stonehenge was a bit of neutral territory.

0:55:32 > 0:55:38And in a way that opened it up for the hippies to come and say, "Well, we lay claim to it."

0:55:38 > 0:55:45And in a way the establishment couldn't argue with us, because they had no idea what Stonehenge was.

0:55:45 > 0:55:48At that time Stonehenge was still just a pile of stones in

0:55:48 > 0:55:51the middle of England that no-one actually cared very much about.

0:55:54 > 0:55:57It doesn't belong to the Army. It certainly doesn't belong to...

0:55:57 > 0:56:00the Ancient Order of Druids dating back to 1907.

0:56:00 > 0:56:02It didn't belong to us either.

0:56:02 > 0:56:07But we sort of had an Englishman's right to our prehistoric heritage of weirdness.

0:56:07 > 0:56:11That's why Stonehenge is so important - it's there!

0:56:11 > 0:56:13It's Stonehenge.

0:56:13 > 0:56:15It shouldn't be there. What the hell is it?!

0:56:19 > 0:56:23And then the sun rose above the horizon, a spark of light.

0:56:23 > 0:56:25And I was feeling... I'd been up for about...

0:56:25 > 0:56:2736 hours.

0:56:27 > 0:56:29And I suddenly came alive.

0:56:29 > 0:56:31I suddenly felt really energised.

0:56:31 > 0:56:33And there were tears running down me face.

0:56:33 > 0:56:36You know, I was completely amazed by the effects.

0:56:36 > 0:56:42And everybody around me had these looks of wonder and joy on their faces as the sun came up.

0:56:45 > 0:56:50It came a focus for people who were fairly extreme...

0:56:50 > 0:56:52in their views.

0:56:52 > 0:56:55People who thought that everything should be free,

0:56:55 > 0:56:58and that society should be changed entirely.

0:56:58 > 0:57:01The whole basis for society should be looked at.

0:57:03 > 0:57:08When you're trying to create an alternative society,

0:57:08 > 0:57:10you look back to a time when

0:57:10 > 0:57:13maybe society wasn't so structured.

0:57:13 > 0:57:15There's always been this sort of...

0:57:15 > 0:57:17I suppose people harking back to the old days, or some sort of,

0:57:18 > 0:57:22you know, trying to get in touch with their culture, do you know what I mean?

0:57:22 > 0:57:25Trying to get in touch with something that's a bit older than

0:57:25 > 0:57:29Tescos and whatever else is going around.

0:57:29 > 0:57:33And I think there was just this general feeling that Stonehenge stood for something.

0:57:37 > 0:57:43The Stonehenge festivals in the mid '70s were as much about community as they were about music.

0:57:43 > 0:57:47People didn't go to see rock stars, but rather

0:57:47 > 0:57:51to restore a spirit of freedom they couldn't find anywhere else.

0:57:51 > 0:57:54The free festival movement had finally arrived.

0:57:56 > 0:58:00To watch people arrive at Stonehenge Festival,

0:58:00 > 0:58:06and to see them a week after they'd been there, to watch the change in their face, to watch

0:58:06 > 0:58:09women just become beautiful - do you know what I mean?

0:58:09 > 0:58:13And men just become handsome, all the stress and worry just falls off them

0:58:13 > 0:58:17and you just see these people, you know, flowering.

0:58:20 > 0:58:23I came across a marquee that held about 800 people.

0:58:23 > 0:58:26And there was a troupe of Shakespeare players,

0:58:26 > 0:58:29and they were just putting on Shakespeare's plays for free.

0:58:31 > 0:58:35There were teepees, banners, funny old trucks all painted up.

0:58:37 > 0:58:42You know, like marquees, stages, dogs running everywhere, kids running everywhere in packs.

0:58:42 > 0:58:46They were really quite amazing events.

0:58:46 > 0:58:49It was a very special time.

0:59:00 > 0:59:03During the '70s, the free festival movement

0:59:03 > 0:59:07had become a serious attempt at creating an alternative way of life.

0:59:09 > 0:59:14By the late '70s, the society it had rejected was in meltdown.

0:59:16 > 0:59:22A new generation was emerging at festivals such as Donington and Reading.

0:59:22 > 0:59:27Wonder and LSD had been replaced by tension and speed.

0:59:27 > 0:59:29The tone had shifted.

0:59:30 > 0:59:34MUSIC: "If the Kids Are United" by Sham 69

0:59:39 > 0:59:42# So let's all grab and let's all enjoy...

0:59:48 > 0:59:51# If the kids are united... #

0:59:51 > 0:59:53At Reading Festival,

0:59:53 > 0:59:57in the mid- to late Seventies, there was always conflict.

0:59:57 > 1:00:00That's when punk kicked off. It just had this energy - this vibrancy.

1:00:00 > 1:00:02You knew something was changing.

1:00:05 > 1:00:10And that is that counter-culture - stepping in again when...

1:00:10 > 1:00:13change isn't coming quick enough for young people.

1:00:13 > 1:00:17It really was the same type of people that made

1:00:17 > 1:00:20the punk thing that made the hippy thing.

1:00:20 > 1:00:22It's a different time, different drug.

1:00:31 > 1:00:35As punk and heavy metal erupted into Britain's festivals in

1:00:35 > 1:00:41the early 80s, even at a resurgent Glastonbury, hippy idealism was giving way to a more political

1:00:41 > 1:00:47festival culture and suddenly everything looked very different.

1:00:53 > 1:00:58We'd put a couple of festivals on - in the early 80s - 81 and 82 -

1:00:58 > 1:01:00and Andrew and myself went round

1:01:00 > 1:01:03to see Michael after the event and said, we're missing a trick here.

1:01:03 > 1:01:07What we need really is the banner to rally under.

1:01:11 > 1:01:17We were just anti-Tory really. We were on a crusade really to actually take on Maggie

1:01:17 > 1:01:21and to fight the oppression,

1:01:21 > 1:01:23and it was very effective.

1:01:29 > 1:01:32Effectively, Thatcher's government

1:01:32 > 1:01:36created from 1982 onwards an exiled population.

1:01:36 > 1:01:43There was a culture of resistance that was threaded through

1:01:43 > 1:01:45the free festivals,

1:01:45 > 1:01:48the miners' strike, the riots in the cities,

1:01:48 > 1:01:52they were all part of opposition to Margaret Thatcher.

1:01:52 > 1:01:55We came together in that at places like Glastonbury Festival with

1:01:55 > 1:01:58a strong Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament support.

1:01:58 > 1:02:01So, to oppose nuclear weapons was to oppose Margaret Thatcher.

1:02:01 > 1:02:04To do free gigs in fields,

1:02:04 > 1:02:08that alone simply was to oppose Margaret Thatcher.

1:02:08 > 1:02:13The growth we have seen in this country in the last five years

1:02:13 > 1:02:20is the growth of unemployment - the growth of an uncaring society.

1:02:20 > 1:02:23At the same time, the true growth...

1:02:23 > 1:02:26In the old hippy days, it was all love, peace and flower power and

1:02:26 > 1:02:29bells and things and mystics and cosmics - all that sort of thing.

1:02:29 > 1:02:33But now it's more politically orientated insomuch as CND

1:02:33 > 1:02:39and it's the same sort of concept and ideals sort of filtered through the years.

1:02:40 > 1:02:46This has not only been a nation of money-makers and imperialists,

1:02:46 > 1:02:51it's been a nation of inventors, of writers, a nation of theatre and

1:02:51 > 1:02:58musicians - an alternative nation and it is this alternative nation which I can see in front of me now.

1:02:58 > 1:03:00CHEERING

1:03:00 > 1:03:04Festivals were reflecting and questioning Thatcher's new Britain.

1:03:04 > 1:03:08Unemployment had reached record levels and anxiety reigned.

1:03:08 > 1:03:14People were just leaving the cities in droves - young people with no hope of a job or anything.

1:03:14 > 1:03:17Three guys would chuck 100 quid in a buy an old coach from the back of a coach company,

1:03:17 > 1:03:23one of their old ones they'd retired - throw a few mattresses in and head off.

1:03:23 > 1:03:26And so, what happened was that movement grew and grew and grew.

1:03:26 > 1:03:31And, suddenly, instead of just the slightly better off hippies

1:03:31 > 1:03:34making their arts fair up in Norfolk - like the Albion fair

1:03:34 > 1:03:40and so forth - you drove a whole load of quite hard core working class people

1:03:40 > 1:03:42from up north, onto the road.

1:03:42 > 1:03:45In 1979, I think there were six vehicles at Stonehenge, you know,

1:03:45 > 1:03:50and by 1984, there were thousands of people hitting the road.

1:03:50 > 1:03:54More and more people appeared on the festival scenes, drinking.

1:03:54 > 1:03:56The whole punk attitude.

1:03:56 > 1:04:03Fuck everything, kind of thing, was quite prevalent amongst a growing group of younger

1:04:03 > 1:04:07disenfranchised people, who had just given up on living in cities.

1:04:07 > 1:04:11- We're just trying to live our lives, that's all.- Yeah, we don't interfere with anyone else.

1:04:11 > 1:04:14This world's supposed to be a common treasury for everybody to share -

1:04:14 > 1:04:16not people to button up. Do you know what I mean?

1:04:16 > 1:04:18No wonder people are starting to get sick.

1:04:18 > 1:04:21These people are pushing our people too close.

1:04:21 > 1:04:24And like, it's going to start to explode one of these days.

1:04:27 > 1:04:29This whole thing is just a total farce.

1:04:29 > 1:04:32Cities are going crazy, everybody's going crazy.

1:04:32 > 1:04:35It's all because of this - they're trying to impose a police state.

1:04:35 > 1:04:37# A lot of people won't get no supper tonight

1:04:40 > 1:04:45# A lot of people won't get no justice tonight... #

1:04:45 > 1:04:52I used to live in a squat and I always thought it would be great if I could save up enough to

1:04:52 > 1:04:59- get hold of something I could own myself and drive about in it and call it my own home.- Call it home.

1:04:59 > 1:05:02There was a definite kind of tribalism going on.

1:05:02 > 1:05:08The whole New Age travellers and New Age gypsies and the convoy.

1:05:08 > 1:05:11There were lots of different little cults of people.

1:05:11 > 1:05:14A lot of them were social casualties really.

1:05:14 > 1:05:16A lot of them were drug casualties.

1:05:16 > 1:05:21They were living outside the law really. They weren't...

1:05:21 > 1:05:24completely independent of the system.

1:05:24 > 1:05:26A lot of them were on the dole.

1:05:26 > 1:05:32So, the authorities saw this movement as rather a threat.

1:05:46 > 1:05:50The original hippy idealists were being joined on the road

1:05:50 > 1:05:54by a new generation of post punk urban squatters.

1:05:54 > 1:05:58This collective would become known as the Peace Convoy.

1:05:58 > 1:06:01And as they arrived at Stonehenge festival in 1984, it seemed peace

1:06:01 > 1:06:07and love had now fully surrendered to anger and resentment.

1:06:07 > 1:06:10See these teeth! Put them in now, go on!

1:06:10 > 1:06:12Kick them in now, man!

1:06:14 > 1:06:18There were in excess of 100,000 people at Stonehenge.

1:06:18 > 1:06:24As with any town that size, you're bound to have a few mischievous elements, shall we say?

1:06:26 > 1:06:30Bikers started just mercilessly beating up any punks they could get their hands on.

1:06:30 > 1:06:35It was like being in some sort of medieval nightmare.

1:06:37 > 1:06:41It was as though the whole thing had hardened up.

1:06:41 > 1:06:44The political thing had hardened as well.

1:06:44 > 1:06:46It was a reflection of that.

1:06:49 > 1:06:55# Welcome home

1:06:55 > 1:06:57# You total stranger.

1:07:01 > 1:07:06# Welcome back

1:07:06 > 1:07:09# The coast is clear.

1:07:12 > 1:07:20# Treat you here just like they treat you there. #

1:07:20 > 1:07:27I mean, it was scary stuff. It was just wild. People just arrived and did what they wanted to do.

1:07:27 > 1:07:33They set up stages, they sold drugs, they did whatever they wanted to do. It was quite scary.

1:07:36 > 1:07:39It did look like Apocalypse Now.

1:07:39 > 1:07:45There were helicopters flying around with lights and, you know, it was pretty ugly.

1:07:52 > 1:07:56In '84, on the way off the site,

1:07:56 > 1:08:03we saw a whole bunch of people trashing the police command unit, if you like.

1:08:03 > 1:08:06At that point, I thought, you've just finished it.

1:08:08 > 1:08:12The increasingly lawless Peace Convoy stood for everything

1:08:12 > 1:08:18the establishment despised and in 1985 the tension would reach boiling point.

1:08:18 > 1:08:22At one point, we were on our way to a festival up in Cumbria.

1:08:22 > 1:08:23I think it was called Blue Moon.

1:08:23 > 1:08:26The police were on their way to the miners' strike.

1:08:26 > 1:08:31This huge flotilla of police went by and they all had banners in the back saying, "You're next."

1:08:31 > 1:08:35It was pretty bloody obvious what was going to happen in Stonehenge '85 -

1:08:35 > 1:08:36the Beanfield.

1:08:36 > 1:08:38You could see it coming like a train.

1:08:44 > 1:08:49The local chief constable had borrowed police from all over the country.

1:08:55 > 1:08:58I'm not here to bargain with you.

1:08:58 > 1:09:02I'm here to say something to you for you to consider.

1:09:02 > 1:09:06Now, you don't have to make an answer now. You can get through to me.

1:09:06 > 1:09:07We want to go to Stonehenge.

1:09:07 > 1:09:11Well, the Stonehenge Festival, as you know, has been cancelled.

1:09:11 > 1:09:13I'm hoping we'll get through the day

1:09:13 > 1:09:15without too many people being injured.

1:09:15 > 1:09:18Before the actual confrontation happened,

1:09:18 > 1:09:22literally minutes before, and as it was happening,

1:09:22 > 1:09:26there were instructions coming from senior police officers

1:09:26 > 1:09:27to break skulls.

1:09:27 > 1:09:31We just want to get off this field as peacefully and quietly as we can.

1:09:31 > 1:09:36This lot, all these coppers, are just here for one reason, and that's to cause trouble.

1:09:36 > 1:09:38I mean, I don't want to cause trouble.

1:09:38 > 1:09:41I ain't going to cause trouble. I ain't got a stick or anything.

1:09:41 > 1:09:46There weren't just riot police. There were special forces, there were soldiers.

1:09:48 > 1:09:53They had large truncheons and they had their heavy shields and they were banging them

1:09:53 > 1:09:55and moving slowly forward and it was surreal.

1:09:55 > 1:09:58We were standing there filming this as it was happening.

1:09:58 > 1:10:02I was thinking to myself, "I'm in another world."

1:10:05 > 1:10:07Open the door, then!

1:10:10 > 1:10:13I didn't do anything, mate. They smashed me windows.

1:10:13 > 1:10:15They hit me on the head with truncheons!

1:10:15 > 1:10:17Then they hit me when I was on the floor!

1:10:17 > 1:10:19On the deck, on the deck!

1:10:20 > 1:10:22On the deck!

1:10:22 > 1:10:24You stay there, boy!

1:10:24 > 1:10:30They then started using their truncheons to smash windows.

1:10:30 > 1:10:35Hundreds of police officers, batons waving, smashing the window as this thing was still moving.

1:10:35 > 1:10:39They brought it to a halt by standing in front. There were a lot of people in it.

1:10:39 > 1:10:42It was their home, and they absolutely trashed it.

1:10:42 > 1:10:45They just went in and smashed the windows, smashed the door down,

1:10:45 > 1:10:48got inside, and all you could hear was screaming.

1:10:48 > 1:10:52Someone help me! Help me!

1:10:54 > 1:10:57What we, the ITN camera crew and myself as a reporter,

1:10:57 > 1:11:00have seen in the last 30 minutes here on this field

1:11:00 > 1:11:03has been some of the most brutal police treatment of people

1:11:03 > 1:11:06that I've witnessed in my entire career as a journalist.

1:11:06 > 1:11:12We're genuine people just like yourselves, and we need help right now.

1:11:12 > 1:11:14Please. Help us.

1:11:14 > 1:11:17All of you, help us. Stand by us.

1:11:20 > 1:11:23Their convoy, in a way, had turned into its own worst enemy.

1:11:23 > 1:11:26It had turned into a bit of a Babylon on wheels.

1:11:26 > 1:11:28There were still a lot of good people in it

1:11:28 > 1:11:32and there was a lot of hope, but there were ugly and greedy sides to it.

1:11:32 > 1:11:35I don't know what would have happened if it hadn't been attacked.

1:11:35 > 1:11:39I think it needed to change anyway. But it was a brutal way to change.

1:11:39 > 1:11:43# I travelled to a mystical time-zone

1:11:43 > 1:11:48# And I missed my bed and I soon came home

1:11:48 > 1:11:54# A rush and a push and the land that we stand on is ours... #

1:11:54 > 1:11:59With the Battle of the Beanfield, the establishment had crushed free festival culture.

1:12:01 > 1:12:07The original dream of an alternative Utopian society now lay in tatters.

1:12:07 > 1:12:14# A rush and a push and the land that we stand on is ours

1:12:14 > 1:12:17# It has been before, so why can't it be now..? #

1:12:17 > 1:12:23What was left of the convoy made their way to a place where they knew they could find some sanctuary.

1:12:25 > 1:12:28A lot of people were really scared to deal with them,

1:12:28 > 1:12:29so Michael ended up driving...

1:12:29 > 1:12:32He got the call that they were leaving Stonehenge at 2am

1:12:32 > 1:12:34and he was up all night waiting for them.

1:12:34 > 1:12:39This is really quite a small village in the middle of the West Country.

1:12:39 > 1:12:43So when all these trucks were arriving, people were really scared.

1:12:44 > 1:12:49I was dealing with these people on my own, really.

1:12:49 > 1:12:53I was just an ordinary Somerset farmer lad, really.

1:12:53 > 1:12:55I'd never seen anything like it before.

1:12:55 > 1:12:57And they were wild.

1:12:57 > 1:13:00They were angry as well.

1:13:00 > 1:13:03They were really tough times. People were really embittered after it.

1:13:03 > 1:13:07People started living on sites with the wreckage of what they had left over.

1:13:07 > 1:13:12But it was really the wreckage of their dream, which was what had been destroyed.

1:13:12 > 1:13:14You say we're bad news. We're the good news.

1:13:14 > 1:13:16You're so fucking unreliable.

1:13:16 > 1:13:18All the work I've been doing for you all the way through...

1:13:18 > 1:13:20You invited yourselves here.

1:13:20 > 1:13:24I gave you 19, or however many tickets, to come on. I said we'd look after you well...

1:13:24 > 1:13:27We gave you the best show you've had here for years.

1:13:27 > 1:13:31We said we'd look after you well... I don't know what you expected.

1:13:31 > 1:13:33We expected to not be out of pocket.

1:13:33 > 1:13:37I've been running this show for 17 years, and I've been fair and reasonable all that time.

1:13:37 > 1:13:41If I hadn't been, I wouldn't be here now. I'd be cut to pieces by now.

1:13:44 > 1:13:49By the end of the '80s, with Glastonbury struggling with the times

1:13:49 > 1:13:53and Reading facing bankruptcy, the outlook for British festivals was bleak.

1:13:55 > 1:14:01MUSIC: "What Time Is Love?" by The KLF

1:14:01 > 1:14:05But in and around the fringes of Britain's cities,

1:14:05 > 1:14:12a new drug and a new generation would combine once again to reignite festival culture.

1:14:12 > 1:14:16The whole 1980s acid house and free party stuff

1:14:16 > 1:14:20was an actual reaction against the sort of Thatcherite idea,

1:14:20 > 1:14:24or the enforced ideology that there was no society.

1:14:24 > 1:14:30And I think that's where they made that big mistake, and their mistake created the void that we then filled.

1:14:30 > 1:14:37The acid house came along and the ecstasy came along simultaneously, and they were the antidote.

1:14:57 > 1:15:01Acid house quickly spread from the inner cities to their ring roads,

1:15:01 > 1:15:05as the nation's youth jumped in their Fiesta XR2is,

1:15:05 > 1:15:09dodged the police and put their hands in the air.

1:15:09 > 1:15:14It was cat and mouse. What people loved about those was...you know,

1:15:14 > 1:15:19the meetings, everyone getting together in car parks, and someone's bleep would go off

1:15:19 > 1:15:23and he'd go "The party's here", and everyone would convoy down there.

1:15:23 > 1:15:25Then another message - "No, it's here",

1:15:25 > 1:15:27the police would run there and everyone would shoot off there.

1:15:27 > 1:15:29I think people enjoyed that as much as the party.

1:15:29 > 1:15:33Sometimes it was absolutely rubbish, and sometimes amazing.

1:15:33 > 1:15:40I went to one M25 party that was in a farmer's tunnel that he used for his cattle

1:15:40 > 1:15:44to get under the motorway, with a massive sound system and lights at one end

1:15:44 > 1:15:45and everybody else at the other end.

1:15:45 > 1:15:48It was like something out of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

1:15:54 > 1:15:57CAR HORNS BEEP

1:15:57 > 1:16:02But increasingly, the hunt for the rave's secret location would lead to nowhere

1:16:02 > 1:16:07but a service station on the M25, where nobody knew what was going on.

1:16:07 > 1:16:08What are you doing?

1:16:08 > 1:16:10Waiting for someone to tell us where it is.

1:16:10 > 1:16:12Isn't that an old story?

1:16:12 > 1:16:14- Yeah.- Sounds familiar to me.

1:16:14 > 1:16:17Well, apparently only one person knows where it is.

1:16:17 > 1:16:18I think the culture of the M25

1:16:18 > 1:16:21was people wanting to make bigger and bigger parties.

1:16:21 > 1:16:24It was fantastic fun, and they wanted to make money as well.

1:16:24 > 1:16:27There was that money-making element that made them grow,

1:16:27 > 1:16:30but we found it was a lot of driving around and not much partying.

1:16:30 > 1:16:34A lot of crooks got involved in it. A lot of heavy duty drug dealers got involved in it.

1:16:36 > 1:16:41There were big marquees with state-of-the-art sound systems, and all this security with all these

1:16:41 > 1:16:46pit-bulls all around it. They were right proper villains.

1:16:48 > 1:16:53The rave scene quickly became expensive, unreliable and a bit seedy.

1:16:53 > 1:16:59So a handful of sound systems ventured further afield in search of something different,

1:16:59 > 1:17:02and in the process, forged an unlikely alliance.

1:17:11 > 1:17:16We were going to things like Longstock, which had displaced Stonehenge.

1:17:16 > 1:17:21As we got the sound system up and running, travellers would begin to appear out of the woodwork.

1:17:21 > 1:17:22It just happened slowly.

1:17:22 > 1:17:27I went to one festival and you could hear "Boom, boom, boom".

1:17:27 > 1:17:30- It was keeping me up. - I needed to be convinced.

1:17:30 > 1:17:38- I thought "I don't like this". - But suddenly, you see all the old guard listening to rave music.

1:17:38 > 1:17:40It was just one of them moments of harmony.

1:17:40 > 1:17:45Everyone just...you know, crusty travellers were putting on trainers and jumpsuits and baggy clothes.

1:17:45 > 1:17:47It was a beautiful moment.

1:17:47 > 1:17:52It had the power of the original Summer of Love.

1:17:56 > 1:18:03I remember going to one of these kind of parties about 30 miles away from Stonehenge in the end.

1:18:03 > 1:18:08On the edge, there was the start of what became Spiral Tribe,

1:18:08 > 1:18:15just setting up a sound system next to what was a sort of travellers' festival. The travellers liked it.

1:18:15 > 1:18:18The new blood people, the people into dance music, liked it,

1:18:18 > 1:18:22and it was all working like a nice little thing.

1:18:22 > 1:18:25It came together. We were bringing the music and the system.

1:18:25 > 1:18:32They were providing the location and some other things, so, you know, it was a joint venture.

1:18:37 > 1:18:41And it was this coming together of two outlaw gangs that briefly

1:18:41 > 1:18:45reignited and reimagined the free festival scene in Britain.

1:18:47 > 1:18:50The whole free festival and free party scene grew and grew

1:18:50 > 1:18:54till you got to Castlemorton, where there was what, 60,000 to 100,000.

1:18:55 > 1:18:59# In sweet harmony, in sweet harmony

1:19:03 > 1:19:04# In sweet harmony... #

1:19:04 > 1:19:07This impromptu festival at Castlemorton, Worcestershire,

1:19:07 > 1:19:12in 1992, reached an unprecedented scale through word of mouth alone.

1:19:12 > 1:19:15It was the pinnacle of the new underground,

1:19:15 > 1:19:19and put the wind up the government all over again.

1:19:19 > 1:19:21You had loads of vehicles everywhere.

1:19:21 > 1:19:25You had double-deckers, your techno traveller types, your zippy ravers,

1:19:25 > 1:19:31your crusties with dogs, your straight-up ravers with beanies and caps.

1:19:31 > 1:19:35You had everyone there, and everyone was mingling. The party went straight through.

1:19:35 > 1:19:39It started Friday, all day Saturday, all day Sunday to Monday and Tuesday.

1:19:39 > 1:19:44And there was a naked man running about by Monday morning. There's bound to be a couple.

1:19:44 > 1:19:48A friend said it was the Woodstock of our generation. She was probably right.

1:19:49 > 1:19:52Scared the crap out of the government, because what could they do?

1:19:52 > 1:19:58There wasn't a police force in the country that could deal with 40,000 people arriving on a place.

1:19:58 > 1:20:02The Castlemorton thing was the straw that broke the camel's back.

1:20:02 > 1:20:04How many days did it go on?

1:20:04 > 1:20:09It was almost like sports coverage on the news. They kept saying, "And another day at Castlemorton..."

1:20:09 > 1:20:13REPORTER: 'A week ago, the 20,000 travellers had sprawled all over the common

1:20:13 > 1:20:18'at an illegal music festival, with beat music pounding out from numerous discos day and night'.

1:20:18 > 1:20:21Why is it on Friday night, we have a man wielding a machete

1:20:21 > 1:20:24in our orchard, chasing our lamb, shouting "meat"?

1:20:25 > 1:20:32The police came down on them like a ton of bricks, and that was the start of the Criminal Justice Bill.

1:20:32 > 1:20:36This summer at Castlemorton and other places saw outrageous

1:20:36 > 1:20:42and unacceptable examples of the problems caused by New Age travellers and ravers.

1:20:42 > 1:20:43APPLAUSE

1:20:43 > 1:20:50There will be no soft option under the Criminal Justice Act.

1:20:50 > 1:20:53Celebrate our multicultural society!

1:20:53 > 1:21:00Celebrate our right to free assembly, and celebrate our right to party!

1:21:00 > 1:21:04MUSIC: "Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack.

1:21:04 > 1:21:07The events at Castlemorton presented the government

1:21:07 > 1:21:13with an opportunity to force through the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act,

1:21:13 > 1:21:16a piece of legislation which outlawed open air

1:21:16 > 1:21:24gatherings of more than ten people listening to "music characterised by a succession of repetitive beats".

1:21:26 > 1:21:31Up to then, dance music had been run mostly by goodwill and happy amateurs.

1:21:31 > 1:21:34All of sudden, that was a turning point where people

1:21:34 > 1:21:37had to get serious and go "Right, I'm going professional now".

1:21:38 > 1:21:41Disorganised festivals,

1:21:41 > 1:21:45that's what the government can't deal with. Can't have that much chaos.

1:21:45 > 1:21:51Can't have a situation where they can't control people, where people can just do what they want.

1:21:51 > 1:21:54It's too much of a threat to them.

1:21:54 > 1:22:00They bring the weight of the law on you, and then paint you as the demons that are, I don't know,

1:22:00 > 1:22:06corrupting the youth or something, and then bring in new legislation to tighten down on all of us.

1:22:06 > 1:22:11It was a period that the UK changed quite dramatically

1:22:11 > 1:22:14from what it was to what it became.

1:22:14 > 1:22:18MUSIC: "Born Slippy" by Underworld

1:22:23 > 1:22:29Music was also changing in the mid '90s, as the underground went overground.

1:22:29 > 1:22:32Indie bands turned into pop stars.

1:22:32 > 1:22:34Dance music became mainstream.

1:22:36 > 1:22:42And festivals reflected this change of mood, as they became fashionable, even cool.

1:22:50 > 1:22:53But as they became ever more popular, Britain's festivals

1:22:53 > 1:22:58were also being obliged to get serious about law and order.

1:22:58 > 1:23:02Even at the traditionally free-spirited Glastonbury,

1:23:02 > 1:23:07this new landscape of legislation was reshaping its future.

1:23:07 > 1:23:11How many people heard this after last year's event, that music

1:23:11 > 1:23:16was stopped, the stage had to be cleared because of severe crushing?

1:23:16 > 1:23:21We are proposing to grant a licence for 100,500 people, knowing full well

1:23:21 > 1:23:26that the dance tent last year was absolutely horrendous.

1:23:26 > 1:23:27It's comical, really.

1:23:27 > 1:23:31I think for the safety of people, we've got to go one way or the other.

1:23:31 > 1:23:34We either reduce the numbers and make it safe, or we get

1:23:34 > 1:23:38a licence for 180,000 people, knowing that this is probably

1:23:38 > 1:23:40what's going to turn up, given fine weather.

1:23:40 > 1:23:45# Karma police

1:23:45 > 1:23:47# Arrest this girl

1:23:47 > 1:23:53# Her Hitler hairdo Is making me feel ill

1:23:53 > 1:24:00# And we have crashed her party... #

1:24:04 > 1:24:06If our festival was going to survive,

1:24:06 > 1:24:09then we had to work with the establishment,

1:24:09 > 1:24:13because there was no way that fighting the establishment

1:24:13 > 1:24:16would result in success.

1:24:18 > 1:24:25# This is what you'll get when you mess with us... #

1:24:25 > 1:24:32In 2002, Glastonbury Festival was required to erect a super fence in order to keep its licence.

1:24:32 > 1:24:38The spirit of anarchy unleashed at the Isle of Wight back in 1970 now seemed symbolically contained.

1:24:38 > 1:24:42The idea of a free festival was over.

1:24:42 > 1:24:46No-one would get into Glastonbury for free any more.

1:24:46 > 1:24:50It was becoming a bit of a monster, because it was very difficult to control.

1:24:50 > 1:24:53So the police and the council said,

1:24:53 > 1:24:55"Look, you've got to get to grips with this,

1:24:55 > 1:24:57"because this is getting dangerous now".

1:24:57 > 1:25:03So they determined to design a fence that couldn't be taken down, you see.

1:25:06 > 1:25:10With stricter controls and tighter legislation,

1:25:10 > 1:25:17festivals over the last decade have ceased to be seen as the open threat they once were to middle England.

1:25:17 > 1:25:23There are hundreds and hundreds of festivals, and it's a big money-making thing.

1:25:23 > 1:25:27It's a kind of, you know, we band people and put them through a gate

1:25:27 > 1:25:31and they can have this, and then we shunt them from this fenced area to another,

1:25:31 > 1:25:37guarded by a whole load of specially badged up semi-policemen.

1:25:37 > 1:25:41MUSIC: "Yellow" by Coldplay

1:25:41 > 1:25:48A surge of television coverage in the past ten years has served to domesticate festivals even further.

1:25:48 > 1:25:52Now even the weather has become a national joke.

1:25:53 > 1:25:59Almost 100,000 fans have defied the worst weather at the Glastonbury Festival since 1985.

1:25:59 > 1:26:04Now it's a multi-million pound business, attracting top performers and an audience of over 100,000.

1:26:04 > 1:26:07On the first day...

1:26:07 > 1:26:10This coverage has kind of inculcated a generation with the idea

1:26:10 > 1:26:14that what you do in summer is go to a rock festival somewhere.

1:26:14 > 1:26:17You know, it's a rite of passage for us all now.

1:26:17 > 1:26:22How old are you going to let your kids get to before you let them go to a festival on their own?

1:26:25 > 1:26:30A lot of what we worked out by trial and error, ad hoc stupidity, magic,

1:26:30 > 1:26:36whatever, in the early days, has been codified, changed,

1:26:36 > 1:26:40made functional by the entertainment industry.

1:26:40 > 1:26:42Everything gets co-opted by the mainstream.

1:26:42 > 1:26:46That is what happens in our world. It's very sensitive.

1:26:46 > 1:26:52What the advertisers and the marketers see is "What's happening? I want to jump on that.

1:26:52 > 1:26:54"There's a bandwagon. Let me get on it".

1:26:54 > 1:26:59And they will get on it and make you an offer you can't refuse.

1:27:00 > 1:27:07As a result of big business and TV broadcasting moving in, the ideological battle

1:27:07 > 1:27:10for the heart of Britain has faded away as music and big name acts

1:27:10 > 1:27:14have returned to the forefront of the festival experience.

1:27:14 > 1:27:16MUSIC: "Fire" by Kasabian

1:27:29 > 1:27:32Obviously, the music scene has changed a lot.

1:27:32 > 1:27:33Live music is really precious.

1:27:33 > 1:27:36It's the one thing which is real.

1:27:36 > 1:27:40You're in the field, you're looking at it, in a world where things

1:27:40 > 1:27:44are increasingly online and communication is quite virtual.

1:27:44 > 1:27:47Yes, you can experience the download,

1:27:47 > 1:27:51but you can't download the experience, and that's what festivals give you.

1:27:51 > 1:27:54They give you an experience you can't get anywhere else.

1:27:57 > 1:28:02For some, the contemporary festival has become a place of weekend rebellion,

1:28:02 > 1:28:05a corporate pastiche of its former self.

1:28:07 > 1:28:12But perhaps the essence of the festival experience has never really changed.

1:28:15 > 1:28:20We're all looking to be happy, and we're all looking to be part of the human family and to reaffirm that.

1:28:20 > 1:28:25That's why people go to festivals. And that is something that can never be repressed.

1:28:25 > 1:28:28I think people like to be together, you know,

1:28:28 > 1:28:33in an environment where there's nothing to prove or nothing to gain.

1:28:33 > 1:28:34You can just be yourself.

1:28:34 > 1:28:39Why people go to festivals, the thing that really calls them, is spirit.

1:28:39 > 1:28:41They are touched.

1:28:41 > 1:28:45And sometimes that touch changes their life for ever.

1:28:45 > 1:28:49# Sing along with the common people

1:28:49 > 1:28:52# Sing along and it might just get you through

1:28:52 > 1:28:55# Laugh along with the common people

1:28:55 > 1:28:58# Laugh along, even though they're laughing at you

1:28:58 > 1:29:02# And the stupid things that you do

1:29:02 > 1:29:05# Because you think that poor is cool

1:29:11 > 1:29:14# Want to live with common people like you

1:29:14 > 1:29:17# Want to live with common people like you

1:29:17 > 1:29:20# Want to live with common people like you... #

1:29:20 > 1:29:23Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd