The Castlemorton 10 year anniversary party kicked off about 30 miles south of Bristol over the jubilee weekend. Despite a large police operation to prevent the party around 30 sound systems and thousands of people partied from saturday night through til tuesday / wednesday at Steart Beach near Hinckley Point power station - having it bigtime for a wicked festival to prove the party scene can still get it together in the face of the state and their dark side forces.

NB Castlemorton was the huge free party with tens of thousands of people that ran for almost one week back in 1992 and which is often cited as being the catalyst for the much hated Criminal Justice Act.

Details of the first meet up point were given out on Saturday morning, and people began to gather at Michael Woods service station on the M5 just north of Bristol. There were about 5 riot vans full of police in their noddy riot suits and quite a few patrol cars cruising around filming people as they chilled out in the blistering sun. There were only slightly more party people than cops, and these low numbers at the meet up caused a few logistical problems - many people had said they had mates who were up for coming but only once they knew the party was sorted and rocking on site - a lazy attitude and not the way to pull off a large free party like this!

Throughout the day rumours circulated and many vehicles left heading towards Hinckley Point - if several vehicles left together the police were sending a car tagging along as well. At one point we saw three vans leave followed by a VW vamper van, with two cops looking well out of place in the front seats :)

As time dragged on it was clear the police were everywhere trying to find the site and prevent people moving. There were some abortive attempts to leave Michael Woods services in convoy and head south, including one where the lead vehicle ran out of diesel down a narrow country lane as the riot vans rushed to follow and a police helicopter hovered overhead - the convoy managed to head south but were roadblocked by the cops and diverted back onto the M5 heading north - and back to the same services station - doh! Although a good test to see just what kind of reactions the police were going to be making for later on... Similar scenes were repeated here and elsewhere.

Meanwhile (and luckily perhaps) quite a few sound systems and party people who had been lying low instead of convoying it or waiting for more info, headed down to take the site and started setting up - there was some disagreement as to whether this had been a good thing to do - some people thought it gave the others a chance since the traffic on the motorway near bristol was in gridlock and the cops were well out and about, others thought that it just allowed the police to suss the location earlier - either way, things worked out ok...

At around 5.00pm the police had sussed the location - which was basically a beautiful beach on a peninsula, with only one main access road, and only five or so small lanes off a larger road leading to the access road. So the cops were now hurriedly trying to set up roadblocks. We managed to drive past just as they were pulling their cars across the road having already passed several closed off roads - and the party info lines began announcing the location.

For the next few hours the police continued to bring in more reinforcements and set up roadblocks all over the place, but a steady stream of people kept arriving in the area. The police also brought in horses and even set up roadblocks as far away as the exits of the M5! The whole area was now full of cops for around 5 miles.

Many people parked their vehicles as near as they could get and tried to walk the few miles down the coast to the site. There were several standoffs with large numbers of people at different roadblocks, where some succeeded in getting past and some even managed to get vehicles through - at one point people tried to obstruct police vans that were moving to block one convoy by jumping in front of the vans, a few scuffles broke out as the cops threw people out of the way, but it meant more people managed to get through.

A lot more people got through in the early hours of Sunday morning, and from then on a constant stream of people arriving and leaving kept the party rocking with around 1,500 people on site at any one time. Many people had been sceptical that such a publicly advertised 'political' (ie Castlemorton anniversary / jubilee weekend) free party teckno fest could come off, especially given previous attempts to hold large gatherings like this, but in the end the people showed it can be done! I was impressed with the unity shown by people, especially when faced with the cops, and I hear a lot of site cleaning and litter picking went on on tuesday.

10 years after Castlemorton and people can still do it :)
What better way to have 'celebrated' the jubilee!?


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GuilFIN reports and nice pics:
 http://www.guilfin.net/database/showevent.php3?ev_id=evINET1425

Bristol Indymedia feature:
 http://bristol.indymedia.org
News Postings:
 http://bristol.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1034&group=webcast
 http://bristol.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1045&group=webcast

More pics:
 http://www.dropshift.org/uktek2002.html
 http://www.dropshift.org/uktek02.2.html

Arial shots of the 'disaster zone':
 http://icd.internetphotoservices.co.uk/public/detail.html?c_album=52683

Stuff about Castlemorton Party in 1992
Brief Info and Background:
 http://tash.gn.apc.org/hist_5.htm
Pics:
 http://tash.gn.apc.org/gal_cstmtn1.htm
 http://tash.gn.apc.org/gal_cstmtn2.htm

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What people are saying on some of the free party info boards:

04/06/02 20:39:36
Subject: RE: NICE1 STERT BEACH MULTI-RIG BONANZA
Message:
Soooooooooooo glad we made the effort to drive all that fuckin way!! Was on the way to a nearer bash when we got a phone call saying there were 30 rigs in Somerset (which we had previously decided against going to, as the communal paranoia had put us off) - turned the car around and headed off down the motorway. 5 hours later (great diirections...erm) we finally found it and were rewarded for the marathon drive!! The party was so big we didn't bump into a lot of people we knew were there, and going back to the car took the best part of 20 minutes.

Never thought it'd be possible to pull it off but credit to everyone involved - 'specially that FOL geezer for getting a very large ball rolling! Wicked weekend - heard everything from Doomkore to Bryan Adams and lots in between.

Thank you so much to all the people that made a truely special weekend possible.

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05/06/02 01:05:17
Subject: RE: NICE1 STERT BEACH MULTI-RIG BONANZA
Message:
what an AMAZING PARTY! the treck down the motorway was tourture spotting vans in traffic you know could be getting out their rigs and partying on the M5! we got a full summer holiday sunburn and sand in shoes included. The vibe was wicked, the people were beatiful , and the music was fucking mental! loved every second of it and not shut up about it since we got back.

Thanks every one involved for making this happen, it was a party i dont think any off us will forget (er aparty from the slightly fuzzy patches but i can guarentee i was loving those too!) See you next time xxx

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04/06/02 19:56:33
Subject: RE: NICE1 STERT BEACH MULTI-RIG BONANZA
Message:
yeah man steart was my first freeparty and i love every damn nano second of it. the beach, the rigs, the cows in the adjacent field, everything rocked! and some dirty filthy gabba too, yukky and nice. and who where those two who were bonkin for like 4 hours not far infront of my car? i had to go once i put the music off coz i could here ya LOL
see u at the next one

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05/06/02 09:46:03
Subject: RE: NICE1 STERT BEACH MULTI-RIG BONANZA
Message:
What can i say that hasn't been said already......it was fucking wicked......even the rain was fun. A big thank you to the lovely pips at FoL and to all the systems for a wicked weekend and for making it all possible.

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03/06/02 16:53:55
Subject: RE: multi rig party?????!!!!!!!!
Message:
Get down there , we went down and were escorted from the area by police , fucking loads of them for about 5 miles around the site, but went and chilled and at 5am not a pig in sight had a mad 36 hours must be 40 rigs over a mile of beach , when we left at 10am this morning it was still going off, and mates we left with a rig are staying down to thursday, you gotta see it to beleive it.

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03/06/02 18:33:19
Subject: RE: multi rig party?????!!!!!!!!
Message:
'allo,

We **finally* made it down there on the Sunday morning after trying since Saturday morning! Unfortunately our tent had ended up hundreds of miles away in a mates car and the two people I went down with had to leave this morning to do some kind of road trip, so I'm back in Manc after less than 24 hours on site :(

Utterly fucking awesome, best free party I've ever been to :) Am trying to get people to go down now so I can get a lift down there :)

Got really wasted and just kept walking up and down the site, got lost numerous times - just when you think you've got to the end you see another group of rigs in the distance...

Didn't see a single policeman on the ground (despite paranoia thinking a line of washing was a load of police hats bobbing around in the distance as we got near the site!), as the site is on the beach you can get off anywhere along the coastline and walk along the beach - we got off about 2 miles from the site and walked the rest of the way, worked a treat.

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04/06/02 16:09:24
Subject: RE: multi rig party?????!!!!!!!!
Message:
wow !!! what a party man
we arived on saturday night at about 2am and we just got back 5minuts ago cant bellive the sise of it! the party is still kicking strong.
a few rigs have packed up but if you are going down their its still well worth the drive,at least 20rigs still going.

well done everyone,fucking hardcore

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04/06/02 18:17:20
Subject: RE: NICE1 STERT BEACH MULTI-RIG BONANZA
Message:
Here Here!! What a storming party. I can't wait for the next one.
Well done to every one involved and every one who turned up. And Well done the police for realising we were going to do it no matter what and for realising when it was time to give up & go and chase some real criminals instead.
I'll be buzzing about that party for weeks!

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05/06/02 11:14:23
Subject: RE: multi rig party?????!!!!!!!!
Message:
arrived saturady late afternoon at about 7.00pm, by this time the pigs had already arrived blocking the roads, finally managed to get on site at about 10ish and get set up.

didn't leave till 7 last night and there where still some rigs going strong.

shame about the twats that had to burn the car and caravan on the beach. it did look tidy and hardly any rubbish the last time i took a walk down there b4 we went tho0"è"