Free festivals are a combination of music, arts and cultural activities, for which often no admission is charged, but involvement is preferred. They are identifiable by being multi-day events connected by a camping community without centralised control. The pioneering free festival movement started in the UK in the 1970s.

History

David Bowie's song Memory of a Free Festival, recorded in September 1969 and included on the 1969 album

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

, mentions the free festival organised by the Beckenham Arts Lab and held on the Croydon Road Recreation Ground on 16 August 1969. The 1972 to 1974

Windsor Free Festival The Windsor Free Festival was a British Free Festival held in Windsor Great Park from 1972 to 1974. Organised by some London commune dwellers, notably Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle, it was in many ways the forerunner of the Stonehenge Free Festiva ...

, held in

Windsor Great Park Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of , including a deer park, to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park was, for ma ...

, England, was a free festival. The 'organisation' was mostly Ubi Dwyer distributing thousands of leaflets and asking people and bands to bring their own equipment and create their own environment – "bring what you expect to find." "Free festivals are practical demonstrations of what society could be like all the time: miniature utopias of joy and communal awareness rising for a few days from a grey morass of mundane, inhibited, paranoid and repressive everyday existence…The most lively oung peopleescape geographically and physically to the ‘Never Never Land’ of a free festival where they become citizens, indeed rulers, in a new reality." Un-authored leaflet from 1980, quoted in George McKay's Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance Since the Sixties (p. 15).

Free festivals by year

Historical

1960s

Woodstock Festival Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquari ...

, 1969 (partly free) * Croydon Road Recreation Ground free festival, 1969

1970s

* Phun City 1970 * Glastonbury Free Festival 1971 *

, 1972–1974 **

People's Free Festival Free festivals are a combination of music, arts and cultural activities, for which often no admission is charged, but involvement is preferred. They are identifiable by being multi-day events connected by a camping community without centralised c ...

s at Watchfield 1975, Seasalter 1976 and

Caesar's Camp Caesar's Camp is a name used for many Iron Age hill forts in England. These include: ;Bedfordshire * Caesar's Camp near Sandy ;Berkshire * Caesar's Camp, Bracknell Forest ;Hampshire-Surrey border * Caesar's Camp, Rushmoor and Waverley, near Far ...

1978 * Trentishoe Whole Earth Fayre 1973–76 *

Stonehenge Free Festival The Stonehenge Free Festival was a British free festival from 1974 to 1984 held at the prehistoric monument Stonehenge in England during the month of June, and culminating with the summer solstice on or near 21 June. It emerged as the major fre ...

, 1972–1984 ** Battle of the Beanfield (1985) * Rivington Pike/North Country Fair 1976–78 * Deeply Vale Festivals 1976–79 * Leamington Spa Peace Festival

1980s

* Elephant Fayre, 1981–86 * Jazz at the Lake: Lake George Jazz Weekend (started as a free festival in upstate New York in 1984)

1990s

* Castlemorton Common Festival, 1992 * Free Edinburgh Fringe Festival * Free Fringe * CzechTek *

Dragon Festival The Dragon Festival is a Spanish free festival which ran from 1997 to 2009, held at Los Cigarrones on the riverbed of the Rio Guadalfeo, 2 km to the south of Órgiva, and from 2010 at Santa Fé, Granada, Spain, during the month of March, and c ...

, Orgiva,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, 1997–2009 * Przystanek Woodstock * Davestock -

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

, BC * Heineken Music Festivals, 1990–1995, UK

2010s

Mile of Music Mile of Music (also known as MoM or The Mile) is an annual all-original music festival located in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin. Started in 2013, the four-day festival runs the first weekend in August, Thursday through Sunday, and is a collaborativ ...

Appleton Appleton may refer to: People *Appleton (surname) Places Australia * Appleton Dock Canada * Appleton, Newfoundland and Labrador * Appleton, Ontario United Kingdom * Appleton, a deserted medieval village site in the parish of Flitcham w ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

* Green World Yoga & Sacred Music Festival, Skåne

2020s

Wisbech Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland port and civil parish in the Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bordering Norfolk and only 5 miles (8& ...

Rock Festival - Wisbech,

Isle of Ely The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county. Etymology Its name has been said to mean "island of eels", a reference to the creatures tha ...

, UK.

Gallery

Simon and Garfunkel 10-146.jpg, Simon and Garfunkel at The Concert in Central Park Cambridge Strawberry Fair 2011 stage.jpg, Cambridge Strawberry Fair 2011 Strawberry Fair 2007, Cambridge - geograph.org.uk - 460832.jpg, Strawberry Fair 2007, Cambridge Normaal parkpop 25juni2006.jpg, Parkpop 2006 West Fest main stage.jpg, West Fest in San Francisco

References

External links

The Free Festivals 1969-1990 - ukrockfestivals.com

George McKay - Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance Since the Sixties:Free Festivals

Battle of the Beanfield - ITV unseen broadcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Free Festival Counterculture festivals Free festivals Rock festivals