Going Green - My film - A nod to the Summer Solstice

This week sees the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year caused by the rotation of the sun. Back in the day when I was 25, I was at the last Free Music Festival of Stonehedge when UK New Agers had gathered since Woodstock to celebrate the Solstice at the ancient monument stones. My film Going Green, which I wrote and directed is loosely based on characters I met at the Stonehedge Free Festival in the 1980's and our subsequent escape to the Ridgeway ancient right of way road.

It was always a peaceful event when I had gone in previous years, but in 1985 I awoke from my tent with my hippie boy friend, Al Murray, nicked named Free Wheeling Frankin from the Alternative Comic book, to hear the rumour that police were gathering down the road. I had been sent out to collect the wood for the cooking fire. We all I am afraid, took advantage of the freedom we had to cook food on open fires right beside the monument. It is understandable that the monument took at bit of a beating in those days when Hippies and New Agers from all over the planet converged on Stonehenge, but the violence that ensued from the police seemed disproportionate to the 'crime' of endangering the monument. I had returned to the camp with the wood and was told by Al the safest thing we could do was to leave. Being a peaceful person he packed up the camp and because we were on foot we carried everything on our backs and walked past the road blocks of the police. Another hippy took pity us and offered us a lift in his car.

We did see that they had blocked a convoy of travellers in cars and that the truncheons were out on the cars. The Battle of the Beanfield remains to be the event where the largest number of people were arrested in the UK at one time. You can read about it here

I was not arrested and in our case under threat of that, the police escorted our group to the Ridgeway, an old road high up on the Wiltshire hills near Avebury, where we had tried to set up an alternative small encampment, and from which we were also moved on from by Police.

We camped happily and peacefully there on the Ridgeway with the blessing of the police for a few days. During that time I got to know the 20 or so campers who all had different stories about their lives. The characters in the comedy Going Green are my homage to their particular alternative look on life and how a homeless family are helped by them in Scotland on the other famous right of way the West Highland Way. You can see my film Going Green on Amazon at this link here
You can see a clip of the film Going Green at this link here


It is of credit to this generation that now Stonehedge is a protected national monument and that the Glastonbury Festival is it's legacy. A nod to my namesake who is appearing there as a singer song writer this weekend.