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The Solstice has been an' gone!

F.U.B.A.R.

F.U.B.A.R.

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Eating shit as per fuckin usual...
Anyone heading down to the stones on Friday? I'm toying with the idea of taking my lad (he's 9) seeing as it falls on a weekend this year. However, I've not been to Stonehenge since the last of the 'proper' free festivals in 1984 so I'm worried it might be a bit of an anticlimax. Any of you chaps 'n' chapesses been to Stonehenge on the solstice since it became 'accepted' to do so? Was it a good vibe, or just a load of trendy bollox?
 
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Bit far me, don't really see the point personally... I'll just be pulling down my blackout blind & hoping I don't wake up too early but with the satisfaction of knowing the nights will only be getting darker from now on!

Having said that, I'd imagine if your son has never been to Stonehenge & he is keen, then he'll enjoy it all the same. That'll be what makes it special for you guys regardless of whether its akin to days of yesteryear or just trendy bollocks.

I have fond memories of doing many things with my Dad that really were really pretty naff in hindsight. :) (I was probably around 12-13 before I started realising things were naff or thinking they were boring.)
 
I really like the idea. Whenever possible, I try to mark the Solstice somehow. Equinoxes too. Not in a hippy way, mind.

I suspect the reality of it would be a little bit annoying for you though FUBAR, based entirely on your BL posts. Then again, if you're the type who can create their own vibe and ignore any offensive trendiness, you might have a great time.

Summer's almost here, anyhow! Shame it doesn't really look like it from where I'm sitting.
 
F.U.B.A.R. said:
Anyone heading down to the stones on Friday? I'm toying with the idea of taking my lad (he's 9) seeing as it falls on a weekend this year. However, I've not been to Stonehenge since the last of the 'proper' free festivals in 1984 so I'm worried it might be a bit of an anticlimax. Any of you chaps 'n' chapesses been to Stonehenge on the solstice since it became 'accepted' to do so? Was it a good vibe, or just a load of trendy bollox?
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Last one I went to too, as you know the score about the old free festivals, I wouldn't bother with the henge, its just vast crowds and not that much fun. Avebury is a good bet for solstice as its a lot quieter and you have full access to the stones.

I'll be partying at Nine Ladies as its nearest to me.
 
F.U.B.A.R. said:
Anyone heading down to the stones on Friday? I'm toying with the idea of taking my lad (he's 9) seeing as it falls on a weekend this year. However, I've not been to Stonehenge since the last of the 'proper' free festivals in 1984 so I'm worried it might be a bit of an anticlimax. Any of you chaps 'n' chapesses been to Stonehenge on the solstice since it became 'accepted' to do so? Was it a good vibe, or just a load of trendy bollox?
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In a very similar position to you in that am thinking of taking my daughter whose keen to go. I on the other hand fear slipping into some kinda discontented nostalgia should we attend

Also went in '84, in fact it was my first festi :).

Last time went to the stones at solstice though was '89 I think, proper cat-and-mouse games with the cops and the army and we ended up celebrating/partying for two days on a mile-long track with a stage mocked up in the middle about a mile from Stonehenge.

If you go with even the slightest idea that it's gonna be anything like it was in '84 then you'll be disappointed. If you go along without preconceptions you just might have a magical time with your lad :)

I'm reliably informed that plenty of good crew still attend , along with all sorts of others just along for the craic, a smattering of druids, a few pissheads etc and still quite a few of that odd cult who wear the freaky pointy blue hats... (you know, the ones who really wanted the place to themselves that much that they used to ring the place and try to exclude everyone else)

As has been said, Avebury is a much more chilled vibe, and there are many other sites where people gather, depends what you're after.
 
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ageingpartyfiend said:
In a very similar position to you in that am thinking of taking my newly-teenage daughter whose keen to go. I on the other hand fear slipping into some kinda discontented nostalgia should we attend

Also went in '84, in fact it was my first festi :).

Last time went to the stones at solstice though was '89 I think, proper cat-and-mouse games with the cops and the army and we ended up celebrating/partying for two days on a mile-long track with a stage mocked up in the middle about a mile from Stonehenge.

If you go with even the slightest idea that it's gonna be anything like it was in '84 then you'll be disappointed. If you go along without preconceptions you just might have a magical time with your lad :)

I'm reliably informed that plenty of good crew still attend , along with all sorts of others just along for the craic, a smattering of druids, a few pissheads etc and still quite a few of that odd cult who wear the freaky pointy blue hats... (you know, the ones who really wanted the place to themselves that much that they used to ring the place and try to exclude everyone else)

As has been said, Avebury is a much more chilled vibe, and there are many other sites where people gather, depends what you're after.
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Ditto: Henge '84 was my first fessie as well - what a way to cut yer teeth eh? I remember a cat & mouse chase with the cops around '89 as well - although we ended up following the convoy to some woods about 20 miles away from the henge and had an impromptu festival there. However, our jolly japes came to a premature end at 7am the next morning as a police helicoptor flew overhead with the megaphone blaring 'You have exactly 1 hour to leave the site, then we send the riot police in!!' Not wishing to re-enact the battle of the beanfield, me tent was packed and I was on me bike in about 10 minutes... Sure enough, as we were leaving the site we passed 100's of coppers in full riot gear, all getting pumped up for a scrap. I often wonder what happened to the 'alternative' culture - has it finally been integrated into a more tolerant and sympathetic society, or simply had its beating heart ripped out of its chest by Thatcher's Britain?
 
What's with the police and army involvement? A few people having a little party to celebrate the solstice doesn't seem like cause for police intervention.
 
The Army ? 8o Jesus Christ, that's a little OTT isnt it, they'll be sending a batallion of tanks next and have air support too. (Though i spose as there is a major army training ground nearby from what i gather i guess its just logistically easier to send soldiers as back up. Really cant see the need though, has there ever been anything more than a few drug related arrests at the Stonehenge summer solstice? I dont think so. What would the people who built it 10,000 years ago make of all this, im sure they'd be completely dismayed :|)
 
Come on MDB, I reckon you're old enough to remember the pitched battles between the 'Peace Convoy' and the police in 1985. It wasn't just a 'few people having a little party' as Curious put it, it was the very embodiment of evil against the glory that was Margaret Thatcher (god rest her soul :sus:) and her legions of cocksuckers... Honestly though, the free festivals at Stonehenge went against everything that Thatcher's Britain stood for, and no expense was spared to make sure that we (nor anyone else for that matter) ever enjoyed ourselves again. It was the Stonehenge festival that triggered the amendments to the public order act that means that any more than 3 people constitutes a riot (or summat like that anyway) - the rave at Castlemorton Common in 1992 was just the final nail in the coffin....

(as a result, anyone under the age of 30 these days thinks a festival costs about £200 and has to have charging stations for their mobile phones and cash machines for daddy's debit card)
 
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It's winter solstice here this weekend which is usually a great time for a doof. Unfortunately this year it has been so hectic that the thought of camping this weekend was too much effort. Particularly as it takes a couple of days to recover.

One year there were severe dust storms that kicked up red dust from the interior, turning the sky into a pink foggy haze for our solstice stomp. It was fucking airy, especially as there was rumours that it likely contained uranium dust from distant flung mines across the outback. The full red moon that night was spectacular though with a head full of acid.

Tonight we'll no doubt head to the solstice celebration in the gardens and smoke around a Bon fire and fire twirl with our hippy mates.
 
so that was the battle of the beanfield. I didnt know or recall that it was directly linked to Stonehenge, i thought it was just some random new age traveller festival that had been smashed up, police battering pregnant women etc.


"You just don't want that sort of thing”

Peter Spencer Retired Wiltshire Police officer. Exactly, so why not just let the solstice folk do whatever it is that they want to do.
 
F.U.B.A.R. said:
(as a result, anyone under the age of 30 these days thinks a festival costs about £200 and has to have charging stations for their mobile phones and cash machines for daddy's debit card)
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Not true my friend, I'm 26 and I've spent half my life attending free parties that despite the law have continued to be held across the country every weekend. Don't really go out anymore though.

Unfortunately I missed out on the good old days though.
 
mydrugbuddy said:
The Army ? 8o Jesus Christ, that's a little OTT isnt it, they'll be sending a batallion of tanks next and have air support too. (Though i spose as there is a major army training ground nearby from what i gather i guess its just logistically easier to send soldiers as back up. Really cant see the need though, has there ever been anything more than a few drug related arrests at the Stonehenge summer solstice? I dont think so. What would the people who built it 10,000 years ago make of all this, im sure they'd be completely dismayed :|)
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yeah, no jest, the fucking army hahaha (was the case without any doubt at all, they were mocked up to look like Thatcher's riot cops and were mingled with the same, no numbers, just truncheons)

I was at the beanfield grimness too unforunately, personally witnessing such niceties such as a pregnant woman (holding a toddler) being smashed in the face with immense force by one of England's finest....as referenced by The Levellers in the little ditty below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMW-m9TDNqw

the alternative/travelling scene was becoming huge in Britain, the authorities became fearful of the anarchic disobedience and resourcefulnes of it all....and we know how that always ends eh
 
F.U.B.A.R. said:
^well fair play to you young feller - I feel particularly miffed at having missed out on the new fangled rave and party scene :(
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Lol believe me you're not missing anything. There is no 'scene', mainly just £10 or fuck off enterprising (which I don't hate tbh if it's done in the right way). Pretty much every good party I can think of is pre-2005. There's been a few big ones going off over the last few years but the tunes are shit and they're full of wankers. Having said that there are still some good parties going on in London.....mainly held by the people who were doing them through the late 90's and early noughties when I started going.

Unfortunately my life has gone the way of many a free-party atendee.....smack:|
 
Well needless to say, I didn't go in the end. My son wasn't particularly interested (I honestly don't know where I've gone wrong with that lad) and I didn't feel like a 3 hour drive after driving all day at work, so I just stayed in and got pissed (again). Shame really as it was the 30th anniversary of the 84 festival, but as Hawkwind weren't playing, there didn't seem to be much point anyway. Ah well, there's always next year....

PS, did any of you 'Henge vets go to the Westbury white horse festival in '86 (or StonedWestbury as it was unofficially named)?
 
I think peoples interest in that sort of thing increases with age, i dunno how old your son is, but i wasnt really that interested in Stonehenhge and its genius alignemnts with the sunset/sunrise (?) at the solstices until later on in life. It was always an amazing as a mysterious structure though, which i have wanted to visit since my early 20s, the fact that the public arent generally allowed anywhere near it (?) has angered me for years, if i did go id probably just climb over the fucking fences anyway, i see it as my right to be amongst my own heritage, im not going to damagae the monument ffs. The nearby trunk road causes more damage to it than the vast majority of visitors would. If people went out of their way to go there then by definition they would go there in awe and respect.

Anyway, later on when i heard about the gatherings, and if bands like Hawkwind were playing there then thoughts would turn to psychedelic substances even more so than they would have allready for such an event.
 
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