The Bickershaw Festival was a rock festival held in

Bickershaw Bickershaw is a village, effectively a suburb of Abram, within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, Bickershaw is 3 miles (4.8 km) south-southeast of Wigan. The Bickershaw Festival ...

, Lancashire, England, between 5 and 7 May 1972. Except for the 1976–79 Deeply Vale Festivals, Bickershaw was the only major north-west multi-day festival with camping. The organisers of the Deeply Vale Festivals say the Bickershaw Festival inspired them to put on a north-west music festival with camping.

History

The Bickershaw Festival was assembled under the auspices of a Manchester businessmen, a Wigan market trader and Jeremy Beadle, before he achieved fame as a

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. Beadle booked the West Coast bands and was artistic policy maker. Chris Hewitt of Ozic Morpheus Records and manager of

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worked with Beadle and was involved in distribution of publicity and tickets. Although the organisers put together a line-up of United Kingdom and American acts such as the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, ...

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, Flamin' Groovies,

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

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, The Incredible String Band,

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Wishbone Ash Wishbone Ash are a British rock band who achieved success in the early and mid-1970s. Their popular albums included '' Wishbone Ash'' (1970), ''Pilgrimage'' (1971), '' Argus'' (1972), '' Wishbone Four'' (1973), ''There's the Rub'' (1974), and ...

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, and a host of non-musical acts such as Cheech & Chong, high divers and clowns, the festival suffered from several major deficiencies. The artist line-up was inspirational to many of the audience, including a teenage

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who said it was his favourite concert, especially the late-night set from

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in 2020, and has twice been nom ...

stood in the mud amazed by the five-hour set from the

, the performance which convinced him he should start a band. Future rock journalist and rock biographer Mick Middles, then 16, travelled there on a moped just to watch the Grateful Dead on the Sunday. There were problems. The site was prone to flooding and there was fat rats. The weather was wet: it rained before the festival opened and then showered for most of the three days of the festival. A tank used by a high-dive act was emptied directly onto the area in front of the stage, resulting in a sea of mud. Security on the gates was inefficient. Tickets were taken and resold to those who were entering the site or were not checked. Festival goers simply got passouts and sold their ticket at half price to people arriving. As a consequence the organisers lost money. By Sunday, all semblance of organisation had disappeared and locals wandered freely onto the site to watch the Grateful Dead. By this time much of the site was awash with mud.

References

External links

Personal account of Bickershaw
{{Rock festivals Music festivals in Greater Manchester Counterculture festivals 1972 in England 1972 in British music Rock festivals in England Music festivals established in 1972 Jam band festivals 1972 music festivals May 1972 events in the United Kingdom

History

See also

References

External links