Alternative Lifestyle Events

What I call alternative lifestyle events (ALEs) possess varying manifestations: the free festival, gathering and mega-event. Most ALEs are seasonal events, annual moments in the (re)creation of an alternative lifestyle. They accommodate a diversity of alternative discourse and practice within their locales, often combining that associated with either of the above clusters. I will now provide details on each of these clusters.

Free Festival

The 1970s and '80s occasioned the emergence and growth of free festivals in Britain and the US. The free festival represented a critique of the commercial exploitation and profiteering of rock festivals, a nostalgic effort to revive folk festivals and the medieval fair. The 'free' element constituted the absence of an entrance fee or payments to entertainers and musicians.15 In January 1967, 100,000 people attended the first 'Gathering of the Tribes' or 'Human Be-in' in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and huge free concerts also transpired in London's Hyde Park in the late sixties. Other free festivals appeared on the periphery of large commercial festivals (Hetherington 1993:147-8). In the seventies, a circuit of free festivals and fairs (or 'fayres') evolved in Britain (Earle et al. 1994:Ch.2; McKay 1996:Ch.1). As Clarke (1982:82) conveys, in these events, commerce was often replaced by voluntary efforts, with food and drink either given away or distributed at cost price, or large informal markets evolved.16 Free festivals were 'a test of counter-cultural independence ... a genuinely collective achievement' (Clarke 1982:83). Their success demonstrated that music festivals were not 'dependent upon the expertise and finance of commercial promoters in laying on an elaborate set of facilities'. Yet, they were more than just music festivals, as 'arts and crafts of various sorts, music and forms of theatre, folk dancing, fireworks and various manifestations of commitment to ecological awareness and ... the occult' were apparent (ibid).

Stonehenge was the most renowned of these events. As 'anarchy incarnate, a riot of self expression and celebratory culture' (Stone 1996:192-3), this summer solstice event, formative in the development of Britain's semi-nomadic new traveller17 culture, began in 1974 (also, see below). The Thatcher government oversaw the demise of summer solstice festivals at Stonehenge with the violent demolition of the 'Peace Convoy' at the 'Battle of the Beanfield' in 1985 (cf. Earle et al. 1994:Ch.1; McKay 1996:Ch.1; Hetherington 1992; 1993). Despite the repressive strategy employed here and elsewhere, many smaller free festivals continued to appear - 'utopian models of an alternative society, offering an ethos of freedom from constraints, an economy based on reciprocity and gift and on the principles of mutual aid rather than money' (Hetherington 1993:148) - some in the mould of the free dance parties discussed earlier.

In Australia, the National Union of Students Aquarius Festival of May 1973 was the formative free festival out of which the nation's 'alternative capital', Nimbin, was born.18 Located in the 'Rainbow Region' of northeast NSW, Nimbin has become a desirable topos for young Australians and international travellers seeking alternative culture and independent living. Nimbin is a demesne of independence and resistance, a significant port-of-call (or destination) on the Australian youth migratory route popularly regarded as 'the hippie trail'. It has become a popular hedonic centre at the margins for 'experimental' and 'existential' tourists (Cohen 1979) chasing the authentic life. At least 5,000 people participated in the watershed moment that was Aquarius. An intentional 'tribal' process and 'a work of art immeasurably greater than anything yet attempted' (Jiggens 1983:11), Aquarius was a direct precursor of the Cotter ConFest in 1976.[19] Coming to 'symbolise the alternative lifestyle movement' in Australia (Metcalf 1986:122), it was celebrated at a ten year anniversary festival, the 1983 Nimbin Lifestyle Celebration (Newton 1988, see below), and at a twenty year commemorative community arts festival (the Aquarius '93 Winter Festival).20

Gathering

Alternative gatherings are distinguished from festivals, in that, not being carnivals of excess, they exemplify conscious efforts to recreate radical utopian communal perspectives. They are decentralised, co-operative and non-hierarchical social experiments, with a distinct commitment to healing-arts and non-commercialism. The Rainbow Gathering of Living Light is the most popular and enduring example of such an event. Beginning as a 'festival of prayer for world peace' in Colorado in 1972, Rainbow Gatherings are annual North American congregations of the all-inclusive Rainbow 'Family' (Niman 1997; Beck 1991). The Gathering grew out of a diverse range of alternative communities and experiments beginning in the sixties, all of which possess 'the shared intent of working for the healing of the Earth' (Buenfil 1991:17). It operates via numerous Councils (e.g. Main Council, Banking, Kitchen, Supply and Vision), consensus orientated decision making bodies which 'strive toward being nonexclusionary and nonhierarchical' (Niman 1997:38). Using money to buy or sell anything at Gatherings is considered 'taboo' - all food and materials are purchased through donations made to 'the Magic Hat'. Gatherings eventually spread around the world. The first Australian Rainbow Gathering took place at the Om Shalom community, northeast NSW, in November 1996. An international phenomenon, Gatherings attract thousands of global travellers, or 'Rainbows', and engender a steadily growing Rainbow 'consciousness' (see below for further elaboration).

There are a host of new spiritual gatherings possessing comparable characteristics and attracting similar participants. The annual One Earth Gatherings, the first of which was held at the Findhorn community in Scotland in the mid seventies, and subsequently passed from host to host around the world (DTEQLD Sep 1983:9), is an exemplary New Age21 gathering. Australia and New Zealand are host to numerous annual gatherings with specialised 'healing and wellbeing' constituencies.22 Alternatively, Neo-Pagan gatherings, designed to celebrate the survival or revival of strains of ancient folk or nature oriented spirituality, have also proliferated. 'Sabbats', meetings of covens or families and other individuals on the solstices and equinoxes and 'quarter days' or fire festivals (seasonal ritual meetings), and 'esbats' (full moon meetings) (Lurhmann 1989:47), have grown in popularity in western nations. In Australia, Pagans have converged at such events since the early eighties (Hume 1995:7; 1997:37-9). Radical Faerie Gatherings, celebrations of 'gay spirituality' (Rodgers 1995:34), are also evident, as are ritual theatre gatherings like those held at Wolfgang's Palace in Victoria.

The Burning Man Festival, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, is perhaps the world's largest techno-Pagan or Zippie (Zen Inspired Pagan Professional) gathering. Thousands of people travel long distances onto the desert playa to become part of a sacred community and to eventually witness, and participate in, the burning of a 50 foot wooden statue packed with fireworks and rockets - 'the Man'. Emerging out of the bohemian scene in San Francisco in the mid-eighties, with its philosophy of 'no spectators', Burning Man is a temporary experimental art community accommodating 'restless, creative counter-rituals of community building and active participation' (Wray 1995). According to Sams (1999:6), the experience is 'off the beaten track, well off any beaten track in America'. Within this edge-community comprised of numerous 'villages' or theme camps, commodification of art is reproved, while a 'gift-economy' is promoted and nurtured. Aside from a 'black market' trade in illicit substances, commodification is kept to an absolute minimum (e.g. most barter for goods). However, as the event increases in size (15,000 people in 1998), it is subject to wider mediation and thus external commodification.

Mega-event

Recent times have been witness to the appearance of large-scale alternative events the territories of which are occupied by an ever growing diversity of performance zones and genres. The mega-rave at Castlemorton in 1992 was a free-festival attracting about 40,000 people. The counter-spatial character of such events is jeopardised by encroaching and sometimes unscrupulous commercialism. Britain's Glastonbury, is perhaps the most famous event of this kind. Beginning in 1971 as a free festival, Glastonbury became larger and commercial throughout the eighties, with a 'fringe' festival developing outside its perimeter (Earle et al. 1994:30). In Australia, the Woodford/Maleny Festival possesses a family resemblance. Beginning in 1985 at Maleny, Qld, the event grew from a small folk festival into a huge alternative community New Year festival, now held at Woodford in Southern Qld. Accommodating indigenous, environmental, multicultural and New Age components, the event attracted around 80,000 people over New Year 1990/91. Woodford/Maleny hosts a large indigenous presence and culminates with a 'Fire Event' (Lewis and Dowsey-Magog 1993:203 [see below]). Today the event incorporates a 'Murri festival', the participants in which are accommodated at a separate 'Murri Camp' (Goodman 1998:39).

We might call these mega-events alternative tourism events. Demonstrating parallels with conventional 'mega', or 'hallmark' (Ritchie in Roche 1992:577) events'23 - like world fairs, significant political or religious events, historical milestones, major sports events and international rock concerts - they often transpire in urban contexts of 'world cities' and attempt to stimulate local economies. While there are signs that alternative mega-events are changed by the input of the corporate dollar, by comparison with 'hallmark events', alternative mega-events possess markedly variant cultural, lifestyle and political 'content'.

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