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Barge Inn.........
2023 – 2024: ENTER THE BARGE INN > SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATIONS …
(Partly) due to the success of the ‘Chicken Town’ free festival event near Stonehenge and with the continual workload of setting up (and maintaining) the ‘Dub Bus’ Sound system for the equinox gatherings on the Stonehenge drove, the small campaign crew were in need of a well earned break. However, a tenth anniversary gig was already overdue, and so it was agreed that an event at the Barge Inn, an idea that had been gestating since 2017, and which importantly would include authorised camping, would be the ideal solution for summer solstice.
The stunning 2023 event flyer featured a picture of the late great Nik Turner who had sadly recently passed over to the other side. In the run up to the 2023 summer solstice a group claiming to be a coalition of (new age) travellers had announced over face book that they would be holding a free festival on the same date as the campaign’s, at a site (tba) near Stonehenge over the solstice. This however failed to materialise both in 2023 and in 2024 and which highlights the importance of the festival campaign and its role as movers and shakers of any remaining D.I.Y/ free festival movement in the 21st century. The campaign would like to thank Lennie and everyone at the Barge Inn, Pewsey, and all those that attended – making it a very special event indeed.
‘CHICKEN TOWN’ June 2022 … saw the festival campaign hit another highpoint in its decade long career – by promoting, organising, and funding its fifth ‘Stonehenge’ free festival some three miles away from Stonehenge. We were blessed with wonderful hot weather, a new site, excellent planning, along with RDF (Radical Dance Faction) headlining midnight solstice eve. There was some minor interference from the police over the two days, but that unfortunately is to be expected (with unauthorised amplified music) and it has become a matter of ‘when’ exactly, a site will be closed to further vehicles, rather than ‘if’/ will police close unauthorised sites. I’m pleased also to say that video posted on you tube by MARNIE ANDREW BURDON captured RDF’s fantastic performance at the event for posterity
(Partly) due to the success of the ‘Chicken Town’ free festival event near Stonehenge and with the continual workload of setting up (and maintaining) the ‘Dub Bus’ Sound system for the equinox gatherings on the Stonehenge drove, the small campaign crew were in need of a well earned break. However, a tenth anniversary gig was already overdue, and so it was agreed that an event at the Barge Inn, an idea that had been gestating since 2017, and which importantly would include authorised camping, would be the ideal solution for summer solstice.
The stunning 2023 event flyer featured a picture of the late great Nik Turner who had sadly recently passed over to the other side. In the run up to the 2023 summer solstice a group claiming to be a coalition of (new age) travellers had announced over face book that they would be holding a free festival on the same date as the campaign’s, at a site (tba) near Stonehenge over the solstice. This however failed to materialise both in 2023 and in 2024 and which highlights the importance of the festival campaign and its role as movers and shakers of any remaining D.I.Y/ free festival movement in the 21st century. The campaign would like to thank Lennie and everyone at the Barge Inn, Pewsey, and all those that attended – making it a very special event indeed.
‘CHICKEN TOWN’ June 2022 … saw the festival campaign hit another highpoint in its decade long career – by promoting, organising, and funding its fifth ‘Stonehenge’ free festival some three miles away from Stonehenge. We were blessed with wonderful hot weather, a new site, excellent planning, along with RDF (Radical Dance Faction) headlining midnight solstice eve. There was some minor interference from the police over the two days, but that unfortunately is to be expected (with unauthorised amplified music) and it has become a matter of ‘when’ exactly, a site will be closed to further vehicles, rather than ‘if’/ will police close unauthorised sites. I’m pleased also to say that video posted on you tube by MARNIE ANDREW BURDON captured RDF’s fantastic performance at the event for posterity
