Windsor Free Festival

WINDSOR FREE FESTIVAL. British Free Festival held in Windsor Great Park from 1972 to 1974. It was organised by some London commune dwellers, notably Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle and 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 1500 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 29th August 1974 the site was invaded by hundreds of officers from the Thames Valley 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. The featured acts at the Windsor Free Festibal of 1973 included ; Hawkwind / Void / Little James / Reverend Mother / Karne / Ace / Clemen Pull / Heavy Wayer / Profusion / Wandering spirit and Hammerhead. Original adverts advertised the bands playing included; Pink Fairies / Ducks Deluxe / Skin Alley / Global Village / Trucking Company / Third Ear Band / Camel and Ace