Welcome to Fairs and Festivals, a celebration of those wonderful, wacky, alternative, hippy, green festivals which occurred in the UK during the late seventies and throughout the eighties, with a very few still surviving into the new century, despite moves by the state to stamp them out. We traveled the UK during the eighties with a charity we formed, One World Films, showing videos about the environment and development, as well as animation, movies and all the Cheech n Chong films. Some may remember us; lots of people just set to when they saw us struggling to cope with the work of running a vegetarian cafe [to finance the project] and often worked, unpaid, for days. They too knew it was much more rewarding to be part of the event, rather than a visitor. We were very grateful for the help, and if we failed to thank all those beautiful souls, I apologise.

An experience which really stuck in my memory was a guy who turned up with just a blanket, and who slept in our marquee and ate our food. He said little, but always litter picked the marquee in the morning. Then one night, the people next door had brought a piano [of all things] for their large stall, and someone started to play it, running fluidly and effortlessly through the most amazing seque of rock standards, each seamlessly morphing into the next. I checked it out, and it was a litter picking lodger! Was he a famous musician I failed to recognize? Was he an undicovered musical genius who just liked to play for free? I lay in bed in the bus and soaked it up, one of the best experiences I've ever had, so peaceful, I drifted off to it, and next morning he was gone. Was it you? If so I would love to hear from you, if only to hear that you know it was very much appreciated. The festivals were like that; free, easy, loving, sharing, crazy, creative, mad, stoned, all the things the straight society frowned on, even locked people up for doing - 'do you have a permit for that sir?' everyone smiled a lot, the kids were in heaven and didn't ever want it to end. Mind changing, life changing, small changing even, but never short changing.

Free Festivals, Green Festivals, Medieval Faires, Music Festivals, Stonehenge, Glastonbury Green Field, and a variety of pagan festivals, brought together people from all walks of life to celebrate life itself. They remade the concept of festival, harking back to medieval times and unholy fools who entertained the people and outraged the authorities. With no one in charge, they came together through the voluntary efforts of hundreds of people who gave their time, energy and talents to create something unexpected and extraordinary. Anarchism in action, no chiefs, bosses, leaders or policemen. Plenty of love, laughter and music though.

The photographs on this site are, so far, the work of Peter Simmons, and everyone is invited to send pictures for inclusion here. We plan a large collection of images from all the festivals, both officially organised and unofficial free events. Email me at peter at oneworldnet.co.uk with your photographs and some information about them, and we will include them in the site. All are welcome to contribute with stories, memories, photographs and reminiscences.

'Helmets', Rougham, Suffolk, c1980

Launch of the site. A lot of work is needed to upload photographs, but before that they all have to be scanned, this was in the days before digital cameras.

Please be patient while the site grows. And please send us your stuff for inclusion. We want photographs from Glastonbury [particularly from the Green Field] and Stonehenge, as well as anything from all the other festivals. So dig into your treasured archives and let others see them. Get those scanners working! We are happy to give you full credit and a link to whatever site you wish, and will even create a page for you if you send enough pictures for one, and express the wish to have your own, or a festival page. There are millions of pictures out there, many never seen the light of day, or never outside the photographers family and friends. Please share them with the rest of us. This site, along with pretty much most other sites, will continue to exist in the internet archives long after the site has ceased and we are all gone. It's therefore your connection with the future, a chance to leave something in case humans survive and, having learned what they did wrong, put into practice many of the things we were experimentally developing back then in the early days of the paradigm shift.

'There you go man, keep as cool as you can, face piles of trials with smiles. It riles them to believe that you perceive the web they weave. Go on thinking free.' MB