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Free Party: A Folk History (Documentary Screening + QnA)

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Saturday 22nd November 2025
Spectrum Studios in Manchester
5:00pm til 8:00pm (Last entry 5:00pm)
Free Party: A Folk History (Documentary Screening + QnA)

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About

They wanted the freedom to party, but the state saw them as the enemy within. Free Party: A Folk History tells the previously untold story of the free party movement, Castlemorton Common Festival and the Criminal Justice Act that followed.

Featuring SPIRAL TRIBE, DIY, BEDLAM, CIRCUS WARP and many others.

Free Party is an independently made feature documentary charting the birth of the free party movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and how its impact sparked a revolution around the world, from raves and festivals to politics and protest.

The film follows the inception of the movement, a meeting between ravers and the new-age travellers during Margaret Thatcher's last days in power, and the explosive years that followed, leading up the infamous Castlemorton Common Festival in 1992 - the largest ever illegal rave, which provoked the drastic change of the laws of trespass with the notorious introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994.

Aaron Trinder, the film's director, says the documentary covers 'the last great unifying youth movement, before digital cameras and the internet, which really challenged the authorities, connected environmental awareness with music and questioned laws on land rights and trespass'. The themes of the movement as depicted inFree Partyare relevant once again, as new laws on trespassing and protesting are being introduced to a new generation of young people.

Trinder is an award-winning writer, director and producer and founder of Trinder Films. He's directed short films, been second unit on feature films and his current focus is on narratively rich feature documentary films.

Free Party's key contributors include members of Spiral Tribe (arrested at Castlemorton) DiY, Bedlam and Circus Warp, as well as DJs and producers such as Chris Liberator, Youth from Killing Joke, Colin Dale, Charlie Hall from Drum Club and others.


A BRIEF HISTORY:

1990, UK. The initial euphoria of the acid house orbital raves had waned after a government crack down. The energy, creativity and radical promise of the 'second summer of love" assimilated into clubland, or commercial 'rip off raves' charging £50 a ticket.

And with the recession beginning to bite, the dream seemed over.

But a new underground began to emerge with a radical idea. Why not make these gatherings go beyond weekend hedonism, instead rejecting the conventional transactional relationship between party go-er and organiser and commercialism itself.

Why not make them - free parties?

Sound systems, such as Nottingham's anarchic collective DiY, with their 'everyone welcome' attitude and London's Spiral Tribe, with their secretive, cult-like image, started to appear across the country. Starting in small squats and 'broken' warehouses as an antidote to mainstream clubbing, they began to venture out into what was left of the free festival circuit, encountering a much older radical culture - New Age Travellers. Although badly bruised after Thatchers attempts to destroy them during the 1980s, they offered a glimpse of the freedom the urban ravers craved.

"We met these travellers at Glastonbury 1990, and it just ... clicked' - Harry DiY

At first this meeting of travellers and ravers was problematic, as formerly family events began to turn into 72 hour raves. But gradually, the two tribes began to merge, and these free festivals began growing in numbers, from hundreds, to thousands, to tens of thousands, through word of mouth alone. This culminated at Castlemorton Common in May 1992. Headline TV news for a week, between 20-60,000 ravers and travellers partied for 7 days. The media now had its folk devils of the day.

The British establishment cracked down heavily with both force and legislation, arresting various members of Spiral Tribe and other sound systems and eventually changing the law with the draconian criminal justice act (CJB). Everyday people inspired by an idea, had come up against the state, and lost. For now.

Police oppression and violence forced travellers, Spiral Tribe and other sound systems out to the newly established EU and around the world, where they took their buses and sound systems on the road, inspiring a generation of local youth to create utopias of their own, including the enormous 'Teknivals'. DiY meanwhile headed for San Francisco, connecting with the remnants of the merry prankster generation.

30 years later, dance music and festival culture is the dominant youth medium, from Glastonbury, to Coachella. But with a rise in authoritarian regimes, endless austerity, as well as global issues such as climate breakdown, we see a resurgent radical culture, with its roots in the free parties of the 90s.

Free Party: A Folk History is a 5 act journey through those times to the present day.

The film is a unique look at how a pre-internet radical unifying youth culture exploded entirely through word of mouth and outside of the commercial mainstream and how that creative and radical energy is seeing a huge resurgence in the challenging political times we are in.

Please note: The event information above has been added by the organiser. Whilst we try to ensure all details are up-to-date we do not make any warranty or representation as to the accuracy or completeness of the information shown.

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