Castlemorton Common: Britain's Biggest Illegal Rave

Witness History

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2017

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the summer of 1992, thousands of ravers and New Age travellers gathered for an illegal free festival on common land near the Malvern Hills in the English Midlands - to the horror of local residents. It was a high point for British rave culture, but also the beginning of the end. The Castlemorton Common event led to a change in the law giving police increased power to shut down events playing music "characterised by the emission of repetitive beats".

Lucy Burns speaks to Lol Hammond, a former member of music collective Spiral Tribe, who played at the event.

Photo: Murray Sanders/ANL/REX/Shutterstock: New Age travellers camping at Castlemorton Malvern Hills in 1992.

Transcript

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1:05.4	Hi and thank you for downloading the Witness Podcast, history told by the people who were there.
1:10.6	I'm Lucy Burns and today we're going back 25 years to the summer of
1:14.8	1992 when thousands of people descended on open countryside in Central England for a
1:20.5	free festival which became Britain's biggest ever illegal rave.
1:25.0	It was a high point but also the beginning of the end for British rave culture.
1:30.0	It all started with an answering machine.
	...

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