Festivals - Part 20

Stonehenge Free Festival

Stonehenge has always been a place of wonder and power.  The Druids worshipped there.  The stones are aligned so that on the summer solstice, the sun rises directly behind another stone set at a distance from the monument (above).

Some New Age enthusiasts who believe in ley lines, mysterious lines of earth energy, say that as many as 14 ley lines all converge at Stonehenge.

What a place to hold a rock festival!

The Stonehenge Free Festival was held on the grounds of Stonehenge in England from 1974 to 1984.  The festival featured rock bands, but it was also a celebration of hippie and New Age culture.  The festival was held in the month of June, culminating with the summer solstice on or near June 21.

This photo, which we've seen in a previous post, shows a naked hippie on the wrong side of a barbed-wire fence on the day of the solstice in 1976.

The festival participants camped out in an area near Stonehenge, which you can see in the background

The campsite was filled with cars ...

and tents, not to mention some naked hippies.

Here, a group of hippies are camping in teepees and making their own music with a flute and drums.  In addition to the guy smoking a pipe (I don't think he's smoking tobacco), you can see a couple of other naked guys walking around.

One of the drummers is sitting naked on his drum.

In 1984, the solstice celebration was held right inside Stonehenge.  These two naked guys seem to be performing some kind of ritual with a censer.

More people celebrating inside Stonehenge.

And just outside the stones, a woman presents a baby to the "tribe" while a naked man dips his fingers in a cup and sprinkles the woman, the baby, and the crowd – his version of holy water?  At the end of this clip you can see that they're next to one of the Stonehenge stones at the right.

By 1984, the festival had grown into a major event with 30,000 people.  Damage caused by festival campers cost £20,000 to clean up, and critics said that archaeological features such as underground barrows had been damaged (the archaeology of Stonehenge extends far outside the main stone circle).  The following year, the government banned the festival.