The above are photos from the avon free festival (1991, chipping sodbury) taken by Tim Aldiss.
I did some reflections today about my life and the influences on it that helped nurture the path i have trodden regarding the natural world and nature reverence. In the very early 1990's my path crossed with a few people that were dubbed by the media at the time as 'new age travellers'.These were an eclectic mix of people that largely shunned mainstream society and bravely attempted to live an alternative way of life, travelling in convoys of motorhomes and other vehicles and living on the edges of cities and towns as close to nature as they could.Influenced to a large extent by the hippies of the 1960's, their ethos was freedom, freedom freedom and the right to explore alternative forms of living. it is hard and also not fair to 'lump together'or try to pigeon hole them but i discovered a fascinating mix of people who were both intelligent and dynamic, often interested in society,philosophy, ecological concerns and mind expansion. I was attracted to their stance on many issues..I was young and keen, keen to explore and keen not to be bored! conventional reality to me seemed dull and flawed, deeply so, and these people seemed to offer a beacon of hope. I started to hang around with them, i adopted their dress and expressions...i wore army boots and tie dyed tops..i grew my hair longer and dreadlocked it, i explored new mental horizons with them. To me it was an age of discovery, a renaissance where we attempted to forge new relationships with the nature around us. I sat round fires with them, got stoned with them and eventually, did acid with them. It was a unique time..the travellers had been holding summer gatherings for donkeys years..meeting up at festivals, such as the avon free festival.The year was 1991..i travelled all the way down from the North of england to find the mythic avon free festival, which was in a place called chipping sodbury. So, it seemed, had many other people...the place was packed..the dreadlocks were everywhere, the acid was everywhere and the sound systems were booming. It has gone down in history as an important cultural event that led to a meeting of the burgeoning 'rave' movement with the hippy/traveller convoys. The dreadlocks met the ravers..and got married:)..To me it was revolutionary..all these people dancing till the sunrise like our distant shamanic ancestors had done..AWESOME! there were fires..friendly faces...i danced, and i found a friendly fire to sit by, alongside wizened older travellers..i was forever changed. The movement grew until the ill fated castlemorton common festival, wher the illegal ravers met in colossal numbers and raved on big time for a few days...it was too big to be stopped!! we had won..we were drawn to this, and portals were opened. Of course, the controlling forces had to ruin the party and the convoys were banned..silly laws were brought in making illegal gatherings of more than a handful of people listening to music of a repetitive nature...they tried to stop the shamans!! but the holes had already been made in the fence..and little did they know it, but many of us forged freedom paths from out of those days, that have now become highways...WE did it!!! Anyway, this is a thankyou to all of those people i met during those important days..i see u still in my mind, and i wish you all the best of luck and love in life...u helped me forge my path, gather my intent..and maybe i would not have ever created a secret nature shrine if it hadn't been for the influences of those days!!
The above are photos from the avon free festival (1991, chipping sodbury) taken by Tim Aldiss.
I did some reflections today about my life and the influences on it that helped nurture the path i have trodden regarding the natural world and nature reverence. In the very early 1990's my path crossed with a few people that were dubbed by the media at the time as 'new age travellers'.These were an eclectic mix of people that largely shunned mainstream society and bravely attempted to live an alternative way of life, travelling in convoys of motorhomes and other vehicles and living on the edges of cities and towns as close to nature as they could.Influenced to a large extent by the hippies of the 1960's, their ethos was freedom, freedom freedom and the right to explore alternative forms of living. it is hard and also not fair to 'lump together'or try to pigeon hole them but i discovered a fascinating mix of people who were both intelligent and dynamic, often interested in society,philosophy, ecological concerns and mind expansion. I was attracted to their stance on many issues..I was young and keen, keen to explore and keen not to be bored! conventional reality to me seemed dull and flawed, deeply so, and these people seemed to offer a beacon of hope. I started to hang around with them, i adopted their dress and expressions...i wore army boots and tie dyed tops..i grew my hair longer and dreadlocked it, i explored new mental horizons with them. To me it was an age of discovery, a renaissance where we attempted to forge new relationships with the nature around us. I sat round fires with them, got stoned with them and eventually, did acid with them. It was a unique time..the travellers had been holding summer gatherings for donkeys years..meeting up at festivals, such as the avon free festival.The year was 1991..i travelled all the way down from the North of england to find the mythic avon free festival, which was in a place called chipping sodbury. So, it seemed, had many other people...the place was packed..the dreadlocks were everywhere, the acid was everywhere and the sound systems were booming. It has gone down in history as an important cultural event that led to a meeting of the burgeoning 'rave' movement with the hippy/traveller convoys. The dreadlocks met the ravers..and got married:)..To me it was revolutionary..all these people dancing till the sunrise like our distant shamanic ancestors had done..AWESOME! there were fires..friendly faces...i danced, and i found a friendly fire to sit by, alongside wizened older travellers..i was forever changed. The movement grew until the ill fated castlemorton common festival, wher the illegal ravers met in colossal numbers and raved on big time for a few days...it was too big to be stopped!! we had won..we were drawn to this, and portals were opened. Of course, the controlling forces had to ruin the party and the convoys were banned..silly laws were brought in making illegal gatherings of more than a handful of people listening to music of a repetitive nature...they tried to stop the shamans!! but the holes had already been made in the fence..and little did they know it, but many of us forged freedom paths from out of those days, that have now become highways...WE did it!!! Anyway, this is a thankyou to all of those people i met during those important days..i see u still in my mind, and i wish you all the best of luck and love in life...u helped me forge my path, gather my intent..and maybe i would not have ever created a secret nature shrine if it hadn't been for the influences of those days!!
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