Making plans for a free festival

It was not long after my eighteenth birthday, I've a feeling it was August bank holiday 1972, or so my diary tells me, that there was to be the first free festival at Windsor, now not being one to turn down the opportunity of going to such an event, especially since my all time favourite band were playing, that being Hawkwind! I just couldn't say no.

This would also be my first music festival, of many more to come. How great it was to be eighteen! Now I was driving, there was no stopping me, though it was slightly different for my friend Maggie, because she was under age.

We both belonged to an amateur dramatics group, in fact that was how we met. On a number of occasions  we would put plays on in different parts of the country, our director would hire a mini bus to take us where we would be going, then we would set up tents and make camp.

One particular weekend, we performed Romeo and Juliet at the Minnack Theatre in Cornwall, what a wonderful setting that was overlooking the sea. We also had a lot of parties, that would start off on the beach, then end up back at someone's house, to be continued well into Sunday afternoon, they were mad times.

But back to our Windsor plans. Myself and Maggie, decided to tell our parents we were going away on a drama weekend, this was the only way Maggie would be able to go. We said we would be back some time on Sunday late afternoon, so if Maggie's mum happened to get on the phone to my mum, at least our stories would be the same.

It was all agreed, her mum said it would be okay. Yes! We were going. Friday couldn't come round quick enough for me. I finished work, got home...got ready, then drove over to Maggie's. I watched as she so innocently kissed her mum goodbye, grinning from ear to ear as she walked down the path and into the car. We stopped off for petrol, which was 35p a gallon back then, I'd never travelled as far as Windsor before, so I needed to fill up. My world had always revolved around buses and
travelling around Bristol until now.

I didn't have a clue how to get to Windsor, so with Maggie reading the map and the signs for
me, eventually we found the site. There was plenty of room to park, but quite late by the time we arrived.

We hadn't actually planned very well, because we had no sleeping bags, nothing to eat and nothing to drink, apart from a bottle of water which I always carried around with me The first thing we did when we got there, was to check out the site, but we ended up walking around the woods, where many other people had decided to congregate, it wasn't an easy place to take a leak, as there were so many people watching, but some people didn't care and just carried on doing what they had too.

We didn't stay up long that night, as we were both tired and wanted to make the most of the next day, being a Saturday, so we headed back to my little hillman Imp, and settled down for the night, Maggie sleeping in the back seat, and me in the front, it was incredibly painful as the gear stick and steering wheel kept getting in the way. We were both also thirsty and hungry, but there was nothing for it, but to try and get some sleep. I was certainly glad when morning came.

To be continued..........