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, from the squatting movement,
wearing a big poncho, & 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 long grass … As they got up their hippie magnificence
struck 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 …
…
In September of 2018 … Paul Oakenfold & Carl Cox, two djs
from back in the day, performed at Stonehenge.
https://liveforlivemusic.com/news/paul-oakenfold-stonehenge/