What is this site all about? How does it work?
freepartypeople is simply a place for free party and free festival memories from the UK from 1990-1994.
Leave a comment with your reminiscences.
Thank you all for visiting, and especially those of you who have contributed 
We’ve now written about almost every big free party or festival we ever went to in the mid-nineties, but there are still one or two events lurking in the cobwebbed corners of our raved out brains.
Thanks to all the commenters, and an even bigger thankyou to the people who lent us their photos and flyers to be scanned, as well as writers of longer posts such as Mharridge and Mr Clang.
We’re ALWAYS looking for more party reports about big and small early ’90’s free raves and festivals, as well as background on soundsystems and music and random vaguely related rantings, so if you remember something, leave a comment! Also, send your flyers, photos, videos, diary pages and mixtape mp3’s.
Some soundsystems seriously under-represented on the internet include DiY, Sketch, Lazy House, Bedlam, Tekno Travellers, Circus Warp and lots of other Circuses (Irritant, Normal etc.) Please send us some memories about them, either if you went to their parties, or were involved with putting parties on with them in some way. Spiral Tribe are well-known and well-documented, but it’s about time we heard more about the unsung heroes of the free party scene…
NB We publish all comments, but they have to be approved first, which doesn’t take very long.
We’re happy to put our friends’ and our own writings, photos and diary page scans out there because this, to us at least, was an exciting time and worth reminiscing about and telling others about. However, please be polite and ask nicely before using any images. We don’t make any money from the site. Not a penny. It’s done out of love, so please try to respect that 
We used WordPress to set up this site (easy peasy, highly recommended, especially for someone who’s never blogged before), but it’s not a ‘traditional blog’, i.e. we don’t post regularly, and the dates the events happened are totally unrelated to the dates we post on.
In case you’re having trouble finding your way round, this is how this site works:
* The front page is where you’ll usually see either the latest post, or something we’ve updated recently. Older posts can be viewed by clicking ‘Older Entries’ at the bottom of the post.
* Clicking on the banner at the top always brings you back to the front page.
* There are a few lists of links (in blue text) on the right hand side which may need explaining. The most recent posts are listed under ‘Recent Posts’.
* ‘Top Posts’, also on the right, refers to the most viewed posts.
* ‘Recent Comments’ is self-explanatory.
* Next is a ‘category cloud’. ‘Categories’ are just like tags or keywords. If for instance you wanted to check out some parties in 1991, click on ‘1991′ and you’ll be taken to a page that lists the most recent post on a 1991 party/festy. Underneath that post you’ll see ‘Older Entries’- this refers to posts we wrote earlier about the same category. If you’re searching for a particular event, the quickest way to get there is to click on the name of the place (e.g. ‘Lechlade’).
* Next, the search box, which does what you’d expect it to.
* Then there are some links to (sometimes only vaguely) related sites created by friends and strangers. A rollover with the mouse will tell you more about each of these. Please do pay them a visit, you’ll find all kinds of interesting music, photography, and rave/counterculture history there. Do let us know if any of these (or any other links on the site) have stopped working, and we promise to fix them as soon as possible
* Finally the stats, which at the time of writing reads ‘40,115 hits’. Rave on!
October 7, 2007 at 1:13 am |
WHO WAS AT CAMBERWELL GREEN OLD BUS DEPOT I THINK IT WAS A BEDLAM PARTY?MOODY N DARK BUT WHAT A MESSY NITE=]CLASSIC!MOST MEMORY WAS WHEN ASTERIKS CAME ON AT ABOUT 5 IN THE MORNIN DROPPED INTO HIS SET WITH THE NASTIEST DISTORTED SOUNDS IVE EVER HEARD NOT SURE IF IT WAS THE TRACK OR THE SYSTEM PLAYING UP BUT IT SOUNDED FUCKING AWESOME ANYHOWS!!!AND TO TOP IT OFF WE HAD MICRODOTS N I THOUGHT AT ONE STAGE I WAS ON FIRE….THOSE WERE THE DAYS IT,L NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN..GUTTED=[.AND DID ANYONE GO TO THE EVEN BETTER ACTON PARTY IN A DISUSED UNISYS WHAREHOUSE?WICKED PARTY UNTILLTHE BABYLON SHOWED.SO MANY PARTYS 2 TALK ABOUT WICKED DAYS BEST OF MY LIFE!!
October 6, 2008 at 8:11 pm |
I remember loads of these around the M25, but my most vivid memories were of the A34 parties around Oxfordshire. Usuallly included Base Druids (or BDi as they were also known), amongst others. Always beautiful parts of the countryside, always a totally messy afair. Western society at it’s wildest and most free. Those people that went to these free parties in the UK seem to be the only ones to truly understand what they meant, but if you were then you know the magic. The meeting of a trail of cars around midnight in the middle of nowhere, then the news confirming the site, then the convoy of cars leading out to the middle of the countryside, then utter abandonment and dance-tastic freedom reigned.
November 20, 2008 at 1:00 am |
Love this site, thank you for putting it togeather, will be coming back to see what gets added.
Take care
April 13, 2009 at 2:36 pm |
freepartypeople says: Didn’t know where to put this. This is from an email:
Pete:
hello and thanks for your uping and keeping of the site, its good to find again after awhile passing since i last came upon it.
..i didnt make it to lechlade or castlemorton but a friend had been insisting i go to all that led up to them and to those 2 big ones and it was only after hearing the tales of lech’ and morton that i decided to go, and the first thing following as i remember was laxton, i think smeatharpe was next then colville up in leicester,again, then torpedo town/s .. then somewhere in there there was the deptford free festival, after which was 17:36 13/04/2009a free warehouse party .. i have vivid if selective memory of some of all of these and will write some of them for your site ..
. i never hear of anyone mentioning the laxton and colville fest/site parties tho’,and wonder if you have.. i think tash has 2 photos from laxton, but of folks, not the scene,cant see much.. and laxton,being my first, and an acid flip top head opener really makes me wish to hear about and see photos even video of.
…i’d been to reading ‘89,but then went to the zapp club and had my first trip in late ‘89 ,discovered travellers parties and purple om’s in a squatted pub in maidstone/chatham area late 89 up to new years,and caught the rave’s at glastonbury ‘90 (tonka? lego?),but this rave scene was the un bridled free situation as you well know..
…let us know if you would on any tales of those leicester do’s,and i will also endeavour to get around to posting some recalls,..
..lastly ,there was a comment/reply somewhere in your site from a lass surname of beverage asking for any photos of justin beverage.. it was from his sister i guess, anyway ,i’d recognised him over the years and hung with him a little at a teknival in the south of france,and and maybe at czech tek weeks before..i’d had my money stolen and he totally sorted me out to make some more,anyway, he had asked me to send a copy of an article someone had given me which i was sure had him standing on top of spirals bus at castle morton, i sent it to the address he gave me and weeks later recieved a letter from his mum thanking me for the print out with him in,but sorry to tell me he’d died ,at an amsterdam party of all places.. …………………….well, i still have the spiral article..
……..(‘nothing can stop the techno travellers’)…..
,somewhere and if you have a contact for the beverage who asked for photos i can send a copy ,if she needs another,when i find it..no problem..
…………………right, again ,nice one..pete
September 5, 2009 at 12:13 pm |
Just discovered this site – brilliant! Went to most of the Festi’s from 91-92… most memorable:
Torpedo town ; Camelford 91, Lechlade 92, ; of course the one that will go down in history being Castlemorton 92 (proper lost it big time there!!). Not much here on Camelford 91, so here is my contribution:
Good Memory:
After getting lost on Bodmin Moor around 3am, following a 4 hour drive from Bournemouth, we stopped at a phone box (pre mobile days of course) to cheekily ask for directions from the local plod and they surprisingly obliged!
Bad Memory:
Discovering there were no trees when daylight broke, hence no discreet toilet facility, and having to walk for miles through a minefield of turds with a layer of pink toilet paper fluttering not so discreetly atop each mound, just to take a girl piss.
October 2, 2009 at 3:42 pm |
Great site, it would seem my memory is slightly better than some. Can’t find any mention of Chipping Sodbury May 1991, Peasdown St john July 1991 and a truely epic warehouse free party in Stroud Sept 21st 1991 when 8000 ravers crashed into town and rocked the old Great mills
freepartypeople say:
Thanks Jamie!
I think there were two parties in Stroud, the one you mentioned in 1991 and one in 1992. And I’ve seen things about Selsey Common in Stroud, as well as Stroud Common, and warehouse parties too, so it’s all a bit confusing can anyone help?
Anything in anybody’s memory banks?
The other ones sound interesting too, where you at these parties? Any memories, however vague ;P ? Details of soundsystems?
How about anyone else? We’ll make some new entries for these and see if anyone shows an interest.