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Castle Morton 1992 This was the big one. I had been following the build-up for several days, every news report mentioned where the hippie convoy was, or where it was meant to be going. All the police were really stressed out, with riot vans and horses at every location they thought they would go. Following it all that day on the news, they reported that they had all gathered in a place called Castle Morton. We got our maps out on the table and tried to find how the heck to get there! Saturday evening we set off as usual with a cool box full of goodies like crisps, biscuits and sandwiches. Took the yellow Volvo, the sunroof was being kept in position with cellotape and audio tapes. Bombed up the motorway. Drove around for ages looking for the place. Followed lots of different convoys. We got stuck behind a small van with some kind of work writing written over it. There was this fat guy sitting in the back who never stopped eating throughout the whole time we followed them, we did have a laughter fit at this. Remember getting there eventually and finding nowhere to park, there were just thousands of cars and people. Eventually found a space down in a small dip near a wooded boundary fence. It was dark when we arrived and we just followed the crowd of people to the party. Taking lots of photos, the farther we got upto the party area, the more expensive the cars got, and the more jammed in they were. There was certainly no way they were going to get out in a hurry. Walking up the tarmac road on our left was a tall arial/sign thing with a flashing light on top, the pole was stripped, Tim said "it was an acid factory." Getting to the brow of the hill was just amazing, so many people going in every direction, there were loads of hippy vans every-where, we took a left. Walked past this steel band lorry/stage like thing playing crappie music. Made our way to Spiral Tribe, (I think it was). The tent was not all that big, normal circus colours. There were things hanging from the ceiling, don't know what, I think it may have been inflatable toys! . Every thing was at the front, not many lights, lots of speakers covered in army camo' netting. The D.J. was to our right if you face the speakers. The sides were open to our left where more people were dancing. Out there were more speakers on a tower, (see photos). The music was mostly bad-boy style Suburban Bass, throwing in Shot like 'dis. In the morning the place was rocking with loads of blacks. There was this big fat women who gave Steve the eye! Another party was in a big lorry, a removemal one i think, there were not many people there at all, just us I think for a minute. The music was very odd, can't really explain it, the lights were really tacky as well. A big party was happening along the road from it, Circus Warp? or Exodus maybe. Took some photos, it looked really good as it was packed out with people. The music was very techno Automation style. One of the best parties was the D.I.Y. tent, but we had to walk to it through some prickly bushes. A big white top, outside was a video screen and projector. Inside was full of netting, hanging fishes and things and loads of slide projectors. Party was really good, stayed there most of the night. A black chap asked Steve for a light for his fag, he gave him his flame thrower lighter which must have burnt his hair and eye-brows as I turned away very quickly knowing what would happen. We walked away very fast. Got loads of photos as did John standing on the speakers. As it was on the brow of a hill, in the morning we just sat outside the tent overlooking the green fields covered in cars. A police helicopter flew over head really low, so I got a photo of it. We could see the police at the bottom of the field. Along from the D.I.Y. tent we met this girl who, in her own words said "that she came to earth on a giant space rocket-joint, that she landed in a field, and that is where her parents found her, but they were not her real parents." We scored some dodgy E's from her friends tent. They were meant to be MDMA clear caps, but the caps were bigger than normal, and they were only 3/4 full. I remember we walked around the site allot looking for parties and stuff, came to this dip and I think I just stood there for ages tripped out, well, there was this girl who asked if I was alright. And to this day I don't know if I had gone off on a weird one, or she was just making me paranoid, or if I was just paranoid, I don't know, it was all very weird. I think the pill was crappy as I spent most of the early hours in the car tripped out. Saw Tigger and all that lot arrive late morning in a blue Astra. We went up to try and find John and Tim as I had to go soon. Found them and as we were walking back some yick hippy kid splashed John with loads of water from a tap, he was not impressed. We moved off about two in the afternoon. I think we left Tim there as he was going to get a lift back. I think Simon Gould and Bubs were there, they did some PCB and had totally lost it. There were stories about them being up for over a whole week, and them saying "We just want it to end, we want to come down." Met Frazer Kidby there as well I think. The morning was dead hot, and the site looked like something out of Mad Max. We bombed home nearly crashing several times as I was driving too fast around these country lanes trying to get home. Found our way easily on Sunday morning. Got on the motorway and that was it, stopped at a service station where everyone was just fucked. Got back to Johns where that weeks party ended. When Captain Kurley got back he had lots of tails to tell us. One was that he had taken about 20 E's that weekend, and in the D.I.Y. tent some black chap had been caught stealing or something, and had been stripped and tied to the centre pole of the tent with a Rottweiler kept just inches from him!
Pictures of this party
Newspaper clippings of this party
Video news clippings to come
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