The Phoenix Festival was set up by John Vincent Power of the

Mean Fiddler Music Group MAMA & Company is a live music and entertainment company which owns and operates a number of live music venues and festivals in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2005, it has since acquired many other venue-holding companies, expanding its reach si ...

in 1993 as an alternative to the established

Glastonbury Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbur ...

and

Reading Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...

s. It was held at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon and was one of the first four-day festivals in Britain.

History

The first year of the festival (1993) featured headline performances by Sonic Youth,

Hole A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...

, Faith No More and

The Black Crowes The Black Crowes are an American rock band formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1984. Their discography includes eight studio albums, four live albums and several charting singles. The band was signed to Def American Recordings in 1989 by producer Ge ...

, and included other notable acts such as

Manic Street Preachers Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Welsh rock band formed in Blackwood in 1986. The band consists of cousins James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, lead guitar) and Sean Moore (drums, percussion, soundscapes), plus ...

, Julian Cope,

The Young Gods The Young Gods are a Swiss industrial rock band from Fribourg, formed in 1985. The original lineup of the band featured singer Franz Treichler, sampler player Cesare Pizzi and drummer Frank Bagnoud. For most of their history, the band mainta ...

and

House of Pain House of Pain was an American hip-hop trio that released three albums in the 1990s. The group consisted of DJ Lethal, Danny Boy, and Everlast. The group's name is a reference to the H. G. Wells novel '' The Island of Dr. Moreau'', a refer ...

. However, the event was marred by controversy. Travelers and refused free entry, blocked the entrance meaning many spent their Friday night in their vehicles in long queues. Festival goers were made to put out camp fires and turn off sound systems at midnight. These rules were in contrast to the 24-hour culture of the Glastonbury Festival, with which many of those present at Phoenix were familiar. There were even demands for refunds, and the festival's reputation was marred from the outset. The enforcement of these rules by security staff led to many of the festival goers showing their displeasure in no uncertain terms. Fencing and light rigs were toppled, fires set and physical clashes between festival goers and security staff also occurred. The festival never really recovered from its poor reception, and although it attracted consistently popular acts, festival goers were less than happy with the site (an old airstrip) and there were also complaints about the prices on site. Such were the problems with security that when the Big Top managed by experimental theatre company 'Dancin Dog' was three times over capacity no staff were available to remedy the situation leading to fights between performers and audience and artists unable to leave the stage resulting in crowds demanding more for several hours and performers continuing until they collapsed from exhaustion and in fear for their lives. Problems with the event reached a climax in 1996 when many festival goers missed

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 ...

on the Thursday night due to problems letting people on site. Having sold out that year for the first time, due to the Glastonbury Festival taking its usual year off (once in every five years in a cycle), the organisers struggled to cope with the crowds and extreme heat. Temperatures on site exceeded thirty degrees Celsius on all days. The weekend was further marred with problems with water being unavailable in parts of the site. The event was notable for the fact that the Sex Pistols headlined their first major UK festival on that weekend. The festival continued for one more year but could never compete with its main rival, the Glastonbury Festival. The 1998 Phoenix event was cancelled due to poor ticket sales, but some acts were moved to that year's

. In July 2011, Vince Power announced his intention to resurrect the festival in his introduction to the programme of the Hop Farm Festival. Power wrote: "For those of you who remember the Phoenix Festival, it's my intention to resurrect this festival next year as Glastonbury is taking a break."

Line ups

1993

The 1993 Phoenix was held from 16 to 18 July at Long Marston, Stratford-Upon-Avon.

1994

The 1994 Phoenix was held from 14 to 17 July at Long Marston, Stratford-Upon-Avon.

1995

The 1995 Phoenix was held from 13 to 16 July at Long Marston, Stratford-Upon-Avon.

1996

The 1996 Phoenix Festival was held from 18 to 21 July at Long Marston, Stratford-Upon-Avon.

1997

The 1997 Phoenix Festival was held from 17 to 20 July at Long Marston, Stratford-Upon-Avon. "David Bowie requested some odd items on his Phoenix rider but came close to not getting a few," recalled promoter Neil Pengelly. "An urgent, eleventh-hour delivery of his bullworker and

carrot juice Carrot juice is juice produced from carrots. Overview Carrot juice has a particularly high content of β-carotene, a source of vitamin A, but it is also high in B complex vitamins like folate, and many minerals including calcium, copper, magnes ...

r required a dash through the arena in a

golf cart A golf cart (alternatively known as a golf buggy or golf car) is a small motorized vehicle designed originally to carry two golfers and their golf clubs around a golf course with less effort than walking. Over time, variants were introduced ...

– not a problem until a plucky punter nicked the cart from under the nose of the briefly distracted driver. A

Benny Hill Alfred Hawthorne "Benny" Hill (21 January 1924 – 20 April 1992) was an English comedian, actor, singer and writer. He is remembered for his television programme ''The Benny Hill Show'', an amalgam of slapstick, burlesque and double ente ...

-style chase ended when the man dumped the cart and ran off into the crowd. Adding insult to injury, three girls spotted the key still in the cart and ram-raided the cigarette stall."

References

External links

Phoenix Festival 96 fansite
{{Authority control Music festivals in Warwickshire Music festivals established in 1993 Rock festivals in the United Kingdom