See also
- List of historic rock festivals
- List of free festivals
- Ubi Dwyer
- Sid Rawle
- Phil Russell, aka Wally Hope, co-founder of the Windsor and the Stonehenge Free Festivals.
| Windsor Free Festival | |
|---|---|
| Frequency | annually |
| Location(s) | Windsor Great Park, England |
| Years active | 1972–1974 |
| Organised by | London commune dwellers, notably Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle |
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, particularly in the brutality of its final suppression by the police, which led to a public outcry about the tactics involved.
The first Festival in 1972 was promoted as "Rent Strike: The People's Free Festival", reflecting the political concerns of the organisers (coming as they did from squatting and commune movements), with an anti-monarchist choice of site in "the Queen's back garden". Attendance was about 700 in its first year, rising to 8,000 in 1973, and an even larger crowd in its final year.
The 1974 Festival, due to last for ten days, was broken up on the sixth morning by a large number of police. Early on Wednesday 28 August 1974 the site was invaded by hundreds of officers from the Thames Valley police force with truncheons drawn, who gave the remaining participants ten minutes to leave. Those who did not were arrested or evicted with a level of force that led seven national newspapers to call for an inquiry, and Roy Jenkins, the Home Secretary, to call for a report from the Thames Valley Chief Constable. [1] Nicholas Albery, playwright Heathcote Williams and his partner Diana Senior successfully sued David Holdsworth, the Thames Valley Chief Constable for creating a riotous situation in which the police attacked the plaintiffs. [2]
In 1975 both Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle were imprisoned, for attempting to promote a 1975 Windsor Festival. A further attempt to return to Windsor in 1978 led to another arrest for Dwyer. The government provided an abandoned airfield at Watchfield in 1975, in response to the public outrage, and as a means of moving the festival away from Royal castles, but the atmosphere of this event was poor[ according to whom? ] compared to Stonehenge, where the energy of the People's Free Festival continued.
Thames Valley Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley region, covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in South East England. It is the largest non-metropolitan police force in England and Wales, covering 2,218 square miles (5,740 km2) and a population of 2.42 million people.
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 free festival in the calendar after the violent suppression of the Windsor Free Festival in August 1974, with Wally Hope providing the impetus for its founding, and was itself violently suppressed in 1985 in the Battle of the Beanfield, with no free festival held at Stonehenge since although people have been allowed to gather at the stones again for the solstice since 1999.
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. The police were enforcing a High Court injunction obtained by the authorities prohibiting the 1985 festival from taking place. Around 1,300 police officers took part in the operation against approximately 600 travellers.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is the local territorial police force that covers the county of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough unitary authority. It provides law enforcement and security for an area of 1,311 square miles (3,400 km2) and population of 856,000 people, in a predominantly rural county. The force of Cambridgeshire includes the cities of Cambridge, Ely and Peterborough, the market towns of Chatteris, Huntingdon, March, Ramsey, St Ives, St Neots, Whittlesey, and town and Port of Wisbech. Its emblem is a crowned Brunswick star containing the heraldic badge of Cambridgeshire County Council.
Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of 2,020 hectares, including a deer park, to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private 265 hectares Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park was, for many centuries, the private hunting ground of Windsor Castle and dates primarily from the mid-13th century. Historically the park covered an area many times the current size known as Windsor Forest, Windsor Royal Park or its current name. The park is managed and funded by the Crown Estate, and is the only royal park not managed by The Royal Parks. Most parts of the park are open to the public, free of charge, from dawn to dusk, although there is a charge to enter Savill Garden.
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.
Leicestershire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland in England. Its headquarters are at Enderby, Leicestershire.
Peter Michael Imbert, Baron Imbert, was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service from 1987 to 1993, and prior to that appointment Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police from 1979 to 1985.
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the counties of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in South East England.
Wiltshire Police, formerly known as Wiltshire Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Wiltshire in South West England.
Philip Alexander Grahame Russell, known as Wally Hope, was an experimental philosopher of the UK Underground and organiser of the Windsor Free Festival and the Stonehenge Free Festival.
London Street Commune was a hippy movement formed during the 1960s. It aimed to highlight concerns about rising levels of homelessness and to house the hundreds of hippies sleeping in parks and derelict buildings in central London.
Berkshire Constabulary is a former Home Office police force which was responsible for policing the county of Berkshire in Southern England. Berkshire Constabulary was merged with four other adjacent police forces in 1968 to form the Thames Valley Constabulary, later known as Thames Valley Police.
Oxfordshire Constabulary was the Home Office police force for the county of Oxfordshire, England, excluding the city of Oxford itself, from 1857 until 1968.
Sir James Starritt, often known as Jim Starritt, was a British police officer in the London Metropolitan Police.
Bill 'Ubi' Dwyer or William Ubique Dwyer was an anarchist activist in New Zealand, Australia, England and his native Ireland and is best known as the originator and principal organiser of the Windsor Free Festival.
Nicholas Bronson Albery was a British social inventor and author, was the instigator or coordinator of a variety of projects aimed at an improvement to society, often known as the alternative society.
Sidney William Rawle was a British campaigner for peace and land rights, free festival organiser, and a former leader of the London squatters movement. Rawle was known to British tabloid journalists as 'The King of the Hippies', not a title he ever claimed for himself, but one that he did eventually co-opt for his unpublished autobiography.
James William Humphreys was an English businessman and criminal who owned a chain of adult book shops and strip clubs in London in the 1960s and 1970s. He was able to run his business through the payment of large bribes to serving police officers, particularly those from the Obscene Publications Branch (OPB) of the Metropolitan Police. His diaries—which detailed meetings he had held with police officers, the venues of the meetings and the amounts of bribes paid—provided evidence for the investigation by anti-corruption officers of the Metropolitan Police.
