stonehengeentertaimentsdiscussion / Stonehenge Group

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stonehengeentertaimentsdiscussion

This list has been set up to debate and perhaps even work something out in relation to having Solstice Celebrations that include the possibility of amplified music in the Wiltshire area and near Stonehenge if at all possible!

To join this group, please state what your interest in the group actually is and perhaps what kind of event you would like to see at or near Stonehenge.

There are several other discussion group lists on the Stonehenge / gathering subject: here, some more links:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stonehengepeace/

&

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stonehenge2003Celebration/

Here is an edit, of one my first contributions to this list:

I didn’t know, of the other groups you mention. But I did know of the Stonehenge peace and reconciliation commission etc.

I am not with them. I disagree quite fundamentally what is going on there.

I am for peace, as well as the next man. The Beanfield was horrible, and I don’t wish a re-run on anyone. BUT, what the outcome of their meetings appears to be, is a complete acquiescence to the police and authorities ideas, on how to run a managed event. It seem so long as they get to be all pagan, and wave an oak leaf at each other, in the stones in the middle of the night, it is considered progress.

Well this anarchist is not religious, Christian, Moslem or Pagan. Never was. But I do claim a right to gather, with me and mine, that goes back to the stone age, right there as we have always done.. Really, why should I put that on hold, because of a temporary bit of law, which, when viewed from that length of history, doesn’t seen to stand up. For such attitudes, you may know that I’m still an ‘injuncted person’ and can be arrested for being in an area, ‘delineated on a map therein between dates around the solstice.’ This order by Lord Justice Morland, has never been rescinded.

My interest is, and always was the gathering of the tribes, to follow this tradition. If you look at some of the photos I put there especially the aerial shots, you’ll see 20,000, on one side of the road at a festival on the solstice, many listening to Hawkwind etc, with a couple of hundred of us, going over the road for a celebration of a few hours, to return back to the festival, before it got dark.

Recent years, after all the nonsense, the focus has shifted to the stones. This is a shame, THEY should have left it all alone! The whole issue, would not now be under such great pressure.

The legal justification, for putting us down, was damage. It informed the injunctions. But, I’ve always thought that there is a difference between ‘damage’ and ‘wear and tear’, like what you get during its ‘use’. Left to the authorities, it would be put in a glass case and air-conditioned as a museum piece, rather than ‘living history’. Do you see, we come from different planets 🙂

Because of the way, this has all panned-out. I did not go to the event this year, have been every year since 1972! But am so disappointed by the way stuff is turning out. The temporary gathering in the middle of the night under rules, is not what this old foggy thought we were doing. I find it hard to account for what is going on, and why folks have put up with it! You might also be interested to know, that I’ve not been to a Glastonbury for years either, last 1992. I think that there is a difference between a ‘festival’ and an ‘outside concert’. Just not what I thought we were doing, when I set out on all this.

The key to having a festival, ANYwhere in the district, is the Ministry of Defence. Oh god! Am so tired.

How many times have we been round all this. National Trust own immediate fields around it, English Heritage own it, and the fields the stones are on. Several thousand acres from Larkhill north, east and west are the MOD. Every year, we ask for some, every year they say no, with similar excuses. Need for army training, unexploded ordinance, Some of this is true, especially with war coming round again. But it is not true for somewhere like Barton Stacy, A303 between Andover and Amesbury. They have political masters, and also, don’t want to be viewed as an easy touch for accommodating hippies. This has many implications for elsewhere in the country! Policeman say they’re upholding laws, and incidentally, don’t have any land. And so, it all goes round again ………!

Farmers are not just farmers in this district, but are huge conglomerates like Countess Farms etc. This is important, since in other places, we have manages to slip an ‘economically challenged farmer’ a few quid, to be

abroad or something. So, in the absence of a suitable farmer, and co-operation of MOD.

The merry dance just continues.

I am turning into a commudginly old git! Think folks in the younger generation, have grown up with the belief that you pay for stuff, to get a service. But the ethic of free festivals was / is

Bring what you expect to find

If not you, who,

If not here, where,

If not now, when.

We cannot have such free gatherings, without the shift in ‘headspace’ that gets people to ask what they can do, for the maintenance of the tribe / event. This is why I went off about Release and such going down.

Personally, I was so impressed by some of the early gatherings, that I asked myself, what can I do to sustain all this. I went away, and joined the London Ambulance Service and got a training that I applied with the welfare team, and release. I met hundreds of others, with similar commitment. And by such input, sustain events that would not have happened otherwise.

Some of you may know, that, in ‘party mode’, in advance of the CJA etc. I was involved yet again, in organising resistance.

All Systems: http://tash.gn.apc.org/allsystm.htm

However, this time round, found many folks just thanked you very much, and watched, while other did work.!! Thus, missing the point.

This is just so different from few years before, when folks did things, and others watched, identified need, and offered to learn and help. Do folks see what I’m getting at? There is now such a mis-match between needs, and

available folks.

I have remarked before ” people now have the festival / party/ events /

they deserve, discuss!”

Gosh, got carried away, sorry, going to bed now.

I hope we can work something out, but have no idea what :- )

Love. tash

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stonehengeentertaimentsdiscussion/message/19