Free Party: A Folk History + Director Q&A

1990, UK. The euphoria of the acid house orbital raves had waned after a government crack-down on illegal ‘pay parties’. The energy, creativity and radical promise of the ‘second summer of love’ assimilated into clubland, or commercial raves charging £50 a ticket. And with the recession beginning to bite, the dream seemed over.

But a new underground began to emerge; sound systems such as Nottingham’s anarchic collective DiY, London’s Fund-e-Mental and Spiral Tribe and acid house party pioneers Tonka begin to form across the country, in clubs, small squats and ‘broken’ warehouses as an antidote to mainstream clubbing.

In the west country, despite being badly bruised by Thatcher’s attempts to destroy their lifestyle, members of the travelling community such as Circus Warp and the Free Party People had the know-how, the spaces and the infrastructure to enable amazing free parties, under the stars.

The parties grew through word of mouth, culminating at Castlemorton Common in May 1992 where up to 60,000 people partied for seven days, making headline TV news for a week and provoking drastic changes to the law of trespass, leading to the introduction of the Criminal Justice Bill.

This independently made feature documentary follows the birth of the free party movement in the late 80s and early 90s, and its impact on present times.