Sweat Soundsystem- Are you out there?

Were you one of the people that organised these legendary parties? The producer of a new independent documentary about free parties would really like to get in touch with some or all of you and give you a chance to tell your story. See the post just above this one for details of the documentary.

I too would love to interview you but my priority right now is to help with the documentary.

Just email me if you are one of the Sweat people: freepartypeople@yahoo.co.uk .

And if you haven’t heard of Sweat, here are some writeups of the events they put on:

September/October 1989: Sweat free party at Mushroom Hill, Wellingtonia Avenue, Crowthorne, nr Bracknell, Berkshire

3rd–6th August 1990: Sweat sound system at Torpedo Town Free Festival, Chapel Common, Hampshire

February 1991: Free Party People and Sweat free party at mansion, Millionaires’ Row, Ascot, Berkshire

21st-23rd June 1991: Circus Warp at Summer Solstice Free Festival at Peasedown St. John, Somerset

Update– The Spiral Tribe do at Rats Run/Longstock Free Festival, Hampshire was on the same weekend.

Shout going out to watermouse who alerted us to this video, thanks! And an even bigger shout out to dj jenjen (aka mis-chief) who shot the video 😀

 

3rd-5th(?) May 1991: Free Party People at Beltane Free Festival, Hungerford Common, Berkshire

Another puzzle, any ideas for an exact date and location anyone? Any reminiscences, however druggfuddled, are most welcome as always, as of course are photos 🙂

We know there was a Beltane festival that year and, assuming Beltane free festivals are held on the first weekend of May, that corresponds to the weekend of Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th May. We have also heard that this festival would have been on the May Bank Holiday weekend and this particular weekend was the Bank Holiday that year. However we don’t know if a) that’s right or b) the party started on the Friday.

Jen Jen aka mis-chief) who shot the video below. Thank you again for filming and uploading 🙂 We think it is mislabelled, it seems to be this event on Beltane on Hungerford Common, rather than a solstice party. Peasedown St. John was on Solstice weekend that year and can be found here.

There is a record of the 1990 event on the ever-excellent UK Rock Festivals site, but in 1990 there was no rave dimension to the festival: http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/hungerford-common-90.html

1st September 1990: People From Pepperbox and DiY’s Ley Line Lunatics Free Party at Pepperbox Hill, Wiltshire

All we know, or think we know, is that the People From Pepperbox joined forces with DiY for this, the third and final Pepperbox Hill party. Is this true? What else do you know? Memories, however scattered, are welcome here, just have a waffle in the comments 🙂 If you want to send us images or have more to say, then email us: freepartypeople (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk .

We have seen a flyer, do let us know if you have a photo of it as we would love to include it here!

Overall, we know very little about these parties. NB Here is the page for the July one, the August Bank Holiday one (Total Recall), and the party on the airfield at Barton Stacey.

Autumn 1990: Free Party People First Party in Dudbridge, Gloucestershire

Apparently the Free Party People threw their first party in the famous blue and red Circus Warp tent on a travellers’ site near Stroud in autumn 1990.

That’s all we know, what do you know? Thanks in advance!

22nd-24th June 1990: DiY and Tonka at Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, Somerset

DiY and Tonka set up in the traveller’s field for the 1990 edition of Glastonbury. Some say that this was crucial for the free party’s integration into the traditional traveller festival.

Before you ask, no, we know Glastonbury wasn’t free, but we also know you could get in without paying pretty easily. This was years before the superfence, so climbing in was an option. It was also very easy to blag your way in. Incidentally, this was the last year travellers got in for free. There was a big fight between travellers and security at the end of the 1990 festival that resulted in Michael Eavis deciding to stop the travellers’ free access to the site.

We weren’t there, but we would love to hear your memories of this meeting of cultures. If you have photos or feel like writing a longer piece just email us at freepartypeople (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. Cheers!