Stonehenge Free Festival

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. By the 1980s, the festival had grown to be a major event, attracting up to 30,000 people in 1984. The festival attendees were branded as hippies by the British press. This, along with the open drug use and sale, contributed to the increase in restrictions on access to Stonehenge, and fences were erected around the stones in 1977. The same year, police resurrected a moribund law against driving over grassland in order to levy fines against festival goers in motorised transport. The festival came to an end in 1985 following the infamous Battle of the Beanfield. What followed was several years of exclusion until the year 2000 when full access was restored. Please see Summer Solstice at Stonehenge