If there were any conclusions that might be drawn I suggest they are:

1. EVIDENCE IS DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN & TO VERIFY
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It is possible but extremely difficult to investigate what happened at the Stonehenge Peoples' Free Festival (1973-1984) The accounts are of a hearsay and second hand nature. Witnesses are unwilling to come forward. There is a natural desire to conceal and deny the less savoury aspects involving criminality. Also the impressions retained by individuals have a mythological quality. They are fiercely defended as if they were a constituent part of that person's identity. Thus they are resistant to debate, to scrutiny, to the appeal of objective evidence.

This reluctance to examine the facts is not confined to those who attended the Festival. For years I've had no success getting the National Trust to examine their claims and their records, most surprisingly for a well resourced organisation they claim they have no evidential records. It appears their vision of the Festival is also mythological. I have no doubt that this would be found to be the case if we were able to communicate with other participants including The Bishop of Salisbury, former Chief Constables and the residents of Wiltshire. I expect their "memories" of the Festival also to have become internalised and mythologised.

2. THE CURRENT SITUATION
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The position of the Festival campaigners who are still quite numerous is that a very similar type of event should take place in a very similar location. In their heart of hearts they require their mythologised version of the Festival to be manifest again. That many years have passed by and conditions on the ground and in society are totally different, the laws have changed, the music has changed, none of this matters. The memories have not changed. It is like a search for the Holy Grail. To try and tell them their cup is not the Grail, it's flawed and it's forged, it's incomplete, that is futile and arouses much resentment.

The position of those opposed to the Festival, who remain numerous and entrenched in positions of power, is that at all costs public policy and public bodies must prevent the establishment of anything that might resemble or conceivably turn into, a "Free Festival". Any park up, camp site or even local musical bands playing in the open air, arouse extreme suspicion. We have to remember that at the height of the paranoia, two people meeting in the road, nay even one person walking down the road, nay even one person sitting by the road having a picnic, were criminals subject to arrest and detention. This is hard to imagine, but it is documented.

3. THE STONEHENGE PEACE PROCESS
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Given the above situation, the achievement of Free Open Managed Access to Stonehenge over the Solstice night is a great achievement. It must be noted that this arrangement is subjected to the requirement that it must not in any way resemble or tend to lead to, anything resembling a "Free Festival". There is of course, no amplified music, no organised entertainment, and the hours of access, overnight, and the removal of vehicles from the area the following day, were all devised with the express intention of preventing people getting too settled in on the land. It is in this context that some of us believe the daylight access in 2003 is truly a step forwards, if a small one.

The challenge for the Peace Process is to project a new image of a communal gathering which is as different as possible from the Festival so that it can be licensed or permitted by the authorities, and yet fulfill the requirements for outdoor celebration that the community are constantly expressing.

We supported an attempt for a Managed Open Access to farmland in 2001, which was to have been just a Park Up not an event at all, but hopefully a step towards establishing credibility of a voluntary management group, and as a seed towards a legal and permitted future gathering. Unfortunately this was opposed by the police, leaving a sense of bitterness and betrayal in the community that still has not gone away.

In 2002 we tried to facilitate a group to meet and organise a properly legal event at some neutral venue, but perhaps partly because of the suspicions mentioned above, the group never incorporated or carried through the plan to reality. Resistance to change is very deep.

This is the crucial moment at which the mythologies of all are being tested and perhaps revisioned. The I Ching speaks of a revolution, a great transformation, that is believed in only after it has happened. It is this, revolution of the mind, that we are seeking. So people look towards the future, and stop staring at the past.

--
George Firsoff

"Though the road may be long
Still journey on
Till you reach your happy abode" (song)

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