Bickershaw festival

The Bickershaw festival was a rock festival held in the village of Bickershaw, near Wigan, England on 5–7 May 1972. Apart from the 1976, '77, '78 and '79 Deeply Vale Festivals, the Bickershaw festival was the only other major North-West multi-day festival with camping. Many of the organisers of the Deeply Vale festivals say it was going to Bickershaw in 1972 that inspired them to try to put on a regular North-West music festival with camping. The Bickershaw Festival was put together under the auspices of a collection of local businessmen, but the primary organiser was Jeremy Beadle, before he became known as a television presenter. The market concessions were run by Harry The Count Bilkus, an eccentric market trader from London, real name Harry Cohen, who was a Bickershaw resident at the time of the festival. The artist line-up was inspirational to many of the audience, including teenager Joe Strummer, who said it was his favourite concert he ever went to, especially the late-night set from Captain Beefheart, and a young Elvis Costello, who stood in the mud amazed by the five-hour set from the Grateful Dead, the performance which convinced him he should start a band. Future rock journalist and rock biographer Mick Middles, aged 16, travelled there on a moped just to watch the Grateful Dead on the Sunday. Chris Hewitt, manager of Tractor and future Deeply Vale Festivals organiser, was involved in distribution of publicity and selling of advance tickets, as was future manager of the Mock Turtles, Bob Fisher.

Although the organisers put together a line-up of United Kingdom and US acts such as the Dead, Beefheart, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Dr John, Hawkwind, The Kinks, Country Joe McDonald, The Incredible String Band, Donovan, Wishbone Ash and a host of mixed-media acts such as high divers and clowns, the festival suffered from several major deficiencies.

Firstly, there was the site itself. The fields were prone to flooding and there was standing water on the site. Secondly, the weather was not good. It rained before the festival opened and then on random occasions for most of the three days of the festival. Lastly, those who manned the security on the gates were corrupt as well as inefficient. Tickets were taken and resold back to those who were coming into the site, or were not checked on entry at all. Thus those inside simply got a passout and then sold their ticket at half price to punters just arriving. As a consequence the organisers lost huge amounts of revenue. They also made the mistake of paying the security force, who promptly left, leaving the site open.

By the Sunday, all semblance of organization had disappeared and locals wandered freely onto the site to watch the Grateful Dead deliver a show of their European tour. By this time much of the site was awash with mud due to the weather and lack of cleanup by the organisers.

No other festivals have been held at the village site since. A festival is planned for 2008 either on the original site or somewhere within the nearby region. There is also a detailed book about the festival in preparation by Chris Hewitt. The DVD about Bickershaw Festival 1972 was released in July 2007 by Ozit Morpheus Records, catalogue number Ozit DVD 0006.

Jeremy Beadle, the main organiser of the festival, was awarded an MBE in 2001 for his charity work. He died of pneumonia in hospital on January 30, 2008.

External links

* [http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/bickershaw-menu.html Extensive Bickershaw festival history]
* [http://www.iowrock.demon.co.uk/bickershaw/ Personal account of Bickershaw]
* [http://www.visitnorthwest.com/news/bickenshaw-festival-returns-after-35-years/ News about Bickershaw 2007]
* [http://www.visitnorthwest.com/news/bickershaw-festival-2007-cancelled/ Bickershaw Festival 2007 cancelled]