Marking 50 years since the epic Weeley Festival

THIS August Bank Holiday weekend heralds the 50th anniversary of the Weeley Festival of Progressive Music, in 1971.

It wasn’t just any old festival and, for many reasons, it has gone down in rock music history.

This is because of how it was devised, the numbers attending, the bands who performed, the outbreaks of fire and violence and then the aftermath of court cases and legislation.

In 1971, Clacton Round Table decided to replace their traditional summer fete and donkey derby with a music event in Weeley.

Iconic - Marc Bolan, of T. Rex, with wife June at Weeley

Not familiar with organising rock festivals, the Round Table employed the Brighton-based Colin King Organisation, previous organiser of the Bath and Isle of Wight festivals, to assist. Colin King didn’t do small events.

“If you want big, then I’m your man,” he used to say.

Big is what they got.

The Weeley Festival turned out to be much more of an event than the Round Table ever imagined.

The festival was held on farmland from August 27 to 29, attracting some of the best progressive rock bands of the day.

Eye in the sky - an aerial view of the main arena, festival village and camp site

The music started at midnight on the Saturday and finished around 5.30am on Bank Holiday Monday.

The 24-page programme for the event, created by the Colchester Express, was provided as a free wraparound to the local paper and also sold at the festival for 5p a copy.

It listed 50 performers for the weekend, including Rod Stewart and the Faces, Status Quo, T.Rex, Rory Gallagher, Barclay James Harvest (with 40-piece orchestra), Stone the Crows, Lindisfarne, Van der Graaf Generator, Colosseum, Stray, Mungo Jerry, King Crimson, Curved Air, The Groundhogs, Mott the Hoople, Al Stewart, Caravan, Juicy Lucy, Edgar Broughton and Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come.

Amazingly, of the 50 acts booked to perform, around 15 are still performing in one form or another.

Mounting tension - police escort a Hells Angel from the site

The festival was licensed by the council for attendance by just 10,000 music lovers.

It’s not surprising that when 130 to 150,000 turned up, the facilities provided struggled to cope.

There was limited food available and the toilets were far from acceptable.

130 Elsan-type chemical buckets catered for the women, while the men sat side-by-side on scaffolding poles, suspended over a 200ft long trench.

No smoke without fire - one of the many fires during the weekend

Medical care was provided by Clacton GP Dick Farrow, who established an admirable medical centre, caring for 1,700 patients over the 72-hour period.

Copious straw remained on site following the harvest, creating a major fire hazard.

On the Friday, before the festival had even begun, there were at least five fires on site.

On two occasions, Frinton fire crew had just returned to base after fighting fires on the festival site - only to be called back again.

Bumper crowd - the festival was licensed for just 10,000 music lovers. Instead, up to 150,000 descended on north Essex

During the weekend, fires destroyed cars, tents, motorbikes and catering stands and a number of people required medical treatment.

Hells Angels, employed to take care of site security, were involved in several running battles with on-site caterers.

The latter group put a call out for help and when reinforcements arrived, the Hells Angels were cornered behind the stage and received a severe beating and damage to their bikes.

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As a result, the medical centre received around 15 moderate to serious trauma cases during a half-hour period and four patients, suffering from fractured limbs or skulls, had to be sent to Colchester General Hospital.

Following the events at Weeley, which reached the front pages of many national newspapers, a Government working party drew up the ‘Pop Festivals Report and Code of Practice’ which was issued by the Department of the Environment.

* If you’d like to read more about the epic Weeley Festival, search out ‘The Great British Woodstock - The Incredible Story of the Weeley Festival 1971’ by Ray Clark.

Credits for the photos used on this spread: Mike Sams; David Dagley/Rex/Shutterstock; Dick Farrow; Derrick Byford; Getty Images; Sunday Telegraph; PA Photos/TopFoto; ANL/Rex/Shutterstock all from The Great British Woodstock, Ray Clark