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 "Memory of a Free Festival" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. Originally recorded in September 1969 as a seven-minute opus for Bowie's David Bowie (1969 album), second self-titled album, it was reworked in March–April ...

, recorded in September 1969 and included on the 1969 album

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

, mentions the free festival organised by the

Beckenham Arts Lab The Arts Lab was an alternative arts centre, founded in 1967 by Jim Haynes at 182 Drury Lane, London. Although only active for two years, it was influential in inspiring many similar centres in the UK, continental Europe and Australia, includi ...

and held on the

Croydon Road Recreation Ground Croydon Road Recreation Ground is a public park in Beckenham in the London Borough of Bromley. It is near the High St and adjacent to Beckenham Beacon. The park features a café and bandstand, as well as a bowling green and other sports facil ...

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 Festival, ...

, held in

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

, England, was a free festival. The 'organisation' was mostly

Ubi Dwyer William Ubique Dwyer (21 January 1933 – 13 October 2001), known as Ubi Dwyer, was an Irish anarchist active in New Zealand, Australia, England and Ireland best known as the originator and principal organiser of the Windsor Free Festival. Ea ...

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

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

1970s

Phun City Phun City was a rock festival held at Ecclesden Common near Worthing, England, from 24 July to 26 July 1970. Excluding the one-day free concerts in London's Hyde Park, Phun City became the first large-scale free festival in the UK. History Org ...

1970 * Glastonbury Free Festival 1971 *

, 1972–1974 ** People's Free Festivals at

Watchfield Watchfield is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse in on the edge of southwest Oxfordshire, southern England, about southeast of Highworth in neighbouring Wiltshire. Watchfield is about north of the village of Shrivenham. B ...

1975,

Seasalter Seasalter is a village on the north coast of Kent, England, between Whitstable and Faversham, facing the Isle of Sheppey across the estuary of the River Swale, north of Canterbury. History Seasalter came to prominence as a centre for salt prod ...

1976 and Caesar's Camp 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 fr ...

, 1972–1984 **

Battle of the Beanfield The Battle of the Beanfield took place over several hours on 1 June 1985, when Wiltshire Police prevented The Peace Convoy, a convoy of several hundred New Age travellers, from setting up the 1985 Stonehenge Free Festival in Wiltshire, England ...

(1985) * Rivington Pike/North Country Fair 1976–78 *

Deeply Vale Festivals The Deeply Vale Festivals were free festivals held near Bury in northwest England in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979 and at a different site in 1980 and 1981. They are regarded as significant events that united punk music into the festival scene. Anni ...

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

* Torpedo Town - Hampshire, UK *

Castlemorton Common Festival The Castlemorton Common Festival was a week-long free festival and rave held in the Malvern Hills near Malvern, Worcestershire, England, between 22 and 29 May 1992. The media interest and controversy surrounding the festival, and concerns as to ...

, 1992 * Free Edinburgh Fringe Festival *

Free Fringe The Free Fringe (also known as PBH's Free Fringe, after its founder, Peter Buckley Hill) is an organisation that promotes free shows during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, every August. Unlike most event prom ...

* CzechTek * Dragon Festival, Orgiva,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, 1997–2009 *

Przystanek Woodstock Pol'and'Rock Festival, formerly known as Woodstock Festival Poland, (Polish language, Polish: ''Przystanek Woodstock''; "Woodstock Station"; English-language materials often referred to it simply to the ''Woodstock Festival Poland'') is an annual ...

* 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 ...

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

2000s

* Barışarock, 2003-2008

2010s

* Mile of Music -

Appleton Appleton may refer to: People and fictional characters * Appleton (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters * Appleton family, an American political, religious and mercantile family * Appleton P. Clark Jr. (1865–1955), Am ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

* Green World Yoga & Sacred Music Festival, Skåne

2020s

Wisbech Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland port and civil parish in the Fenland District, 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 ...

Rock Festival - Wisbech,

Isle of Ely The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an Administrative counties of England, administrative county. Etymology Its name has been said to ...

, UK.

Gallery

Simon and Garfunkel 10-146.jpg, Simon and Garfunkel at

The Concert in Central Park ''The Concert in Central Park'' is the first live album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on February 16, 1982, by Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded on September 19, 1981, at a free benefit concert on the Great Lawn in ...

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