Rave before Rave … Stonehenge Free Festival … 70’s sometime.

Not remembering the exact year, too long ago, but before

the fencing & such and all.

Not recalling the bands at all either … but probably Edgar Broughton,

Gong & others … 

Teepees, I remember teepees, & Sid Rawls in a big blanket thingy,

& a youngster set up his tent right in their magic enclosure and

Sid asked him to move a little … & a couple making love right there 

in the grass. As they got up their hippie magnificence stuck me,

headbands, long hair, scarves, bits and pieces … & their smiles

too.

 …

And an older longhair, big blanket thingy, stirring with a 

long wooden stick and huge cauldron of mixings and fixes, free

lunch for all … local Health Dept folks came by and told him he 

had to get dressed properly like, unhealthy to be naked under 

there and stirring the cauldron. Dark and bubbling as I recall it, 

don’t think I had a bowl.

…

And joints and joint rolling, with tobacco and Rizla papers and heating 

the hash and crumbling it in and a roach at the end to stabilize 

the mouthpiece a little. And folks back from the East and the Hippy 

Trail with fiery smoking chillums wrapped in damp rags

& passed from hand to hand with a Bom Shankar exclamation.

And Acid of course, lots of LSD. 

…

And lone acoustic guitars, and at times a flute, and bongos, and 

fireside quiet listen-in to home renditions of Dylan and Neil Young. 

Not exactly beats and techno rave style but homegrown small

rock bands entertained us all.

…

Not quite vibrant dancing hordes but the precursor to the Rave.

Illegal, carefree, loaded and fun …