Free Party: A Folk History

The birth of the free party movement and the untold story of the largest illegal rave in history.

At its inception in the late 80s and early 90s, the free party movement was a meeting of like-minded souls, ravers and new age travellers consoling themselves with communal dancing against Thatcher's Britain. As their numbers grew, so did police resistance against it, culminating in the infamous Castlemorton free festival, the largest ever illegal rave which saw drastic changes around mass gatherings and laws around trespass. This is the story of a movement, its players and the subcultures it created.

Curator's note
Rising from the slow decline and mass commercialisation of the UK acid house and rave scenes in the 90s, the free party movement initially saw an opening to democratise dancing again. Bring it back to the people as it were. Aaron Trinder's energetic documentary recounts how these music tribes or sound systems with humble beginnings in dilapidated squats and abandoned warehouses created a music revolution that still reverberates today. Its legacy 30 years later can be seen in major festivals such as Glastonbury and Coachella but it's on the fringes of these events that we can see the continued resurgence of radical energy and resistance.