The 1970s were a transformative time for northern New South Wales, especially in the regional town of Nimbin. early 1970s, but the Nimbin Aquarius Festival of 1973 undoubtedly had a bigger and more lasting impact than any of the commercial rock festivals of the period, even though it was relatively small compared to Sunbury. That, including long term opposition to the Vietnam War; very much a background of student politics, and the student worker movement.” I asked Johnny whether he felt disconnected from his parents’ generation. He was 66 years old. Geoffroy Alf. View our most recent social media posts I once lived in Nimbin and I just love it when older folk welcome me home there today. The series of events that led Johnny to his role as the Director of Aquarius, were suitably organic. And then we’d do it all again.”. There was a dog asleep in the middle of the main road, and an old timer on a rocking chair outside the only shop. A number of Nimbin's new residents were involved in landmark environmental campaigns in the area, such as the blockade against the logging of the forest at Terania Creek in 1979. 1:45. That’s continued and it’s one part of the Australian coast now that I think is quite unique. This is because Aquarius I was the event manager for Darling Harbour for seven years, and then of Tourism NSW that eventually became Destination NSW and Vivid. “The population of Nimbin was around 300, and there were 310 people at the meeting,” laughs Johnny. In the 1960s, the local dairy industry collapsed due to recession and Nimbin went into serious economic decline until 1973, when the Aquarius Festival, a large gathering of university students, practitioners of alternative lifestyles, hippies, and party people, was held in the village. The ‘Nimbin Aquarius Festival’ logo, 1973. 1973, First Aquarius Festival, Nimbin, 1973, the first hippie festival in Australia was a mixture of back-to-earth skills laced with idealism and pot, [2] [picture] / Lee Pearce. “But we didn’t know that we’d applied for the same job at the AUS. Held from 12-21 May 1973, the Nimbin Aquarius Festival was a watershed event in the growth of an alternative movement in Australia. Flickr/Harry Watson Smith, CC BY-SA. Just because it was very much a product of the times. Rare colour film footage of Australia's Nimbin Aquarius Festival, the historic event organized by the Australian Union of Students in 1973. And events like the successful protest at the Bentley Blockade in 2013 that resulted in the revoking of Metgasco’s gas exploration licence, can certainly be seen as product of the Aquarius fallout. The fourth and last was held in Ni… It was very much a story of a conservative and sleepy country town meeting up with radical students from the cities, and back in those days there was very much an ‘us and them’ mentality. But, there was also some really lovely interactions and meetings between us and the Nimbin locals.”. Wikipedia Citation. “We’d have a dialogue in each city,” explains Johnny. Unusually for the era, the founders of the festival made contact with the local Aboriginal people, the Bundjalung, consulting with elders over the proposed use of the land. This was 1973. “Every couple of months we would go up to the farm and everyone was welcome,” Johnny tells me. The real significance of the festival, both in the Northern Rivers region and the cultural landscape of Australia, came in the fallout. "I had come to Australia to see if there was any kind of counterculture here at all...". “I’ve had a bit of a mixed bag career-wise,” he tells me, “and there’s lots of things that I’ve done since then. “Graeme Dunstan and I both knew each other from Sydney,” remembers Johnny. The interviewees speak of not only the excitement of creating a new life but also the difficulties and frustrations of communal living. Johnny Allen concludes our chat by saying that if there’s one thing that we can learn from Aquarius, it’s that the environment needs us to “protect it and go with it.” Tread lightly. Sun 30 Jan. 1972 Rock church Service with music by Adelaide bands Buffalo Drive and Earth, from the Rock musical "Manchild" Goblins band Gerry's Jugband The third added "Aquarius" to its name and was held in Canberra in 1971. We basically got the jobs, got told that we needed to put on a festival, and then went, ‘Well what the hell do we do now?’“ he laughs. Activism remains strong in the area. I ask Johnny Allen whether pulling off the Aquarius festival in 1973 ranks as one of his greatest achievements. Please see Wikipedia's template documentation for further citation fields that may be required. You are the festival. The Aquarius Festival. View a list of all our accounts. The Nimbin Aquarius Festival was loaded … But it’s interesting that of all the things I’ve been involved in over the years, the one thing that still pops up, quite regularly, and still survives in many ways, is Nimbin. The 1970s were a transformative time for northern New South Wales, especially in the regional town of Nimbin. Nimbin Aquarius Festival 1973. Once the bands left and the dust settled, a few intrepid souls stayed on to live the dreams and ideology of Aquarius and sow the … Playing next. Graeme Dunstan explained just prior to the festival that, “Rock festivals have been killed by the entrepreneurs, and then we thought that we should run a free form festival where people can come along and make it the sort of festival that they want.”, Johnny remembers fondly the ten days that was the result of a year’s worth of work. Graeme aptly summed up the Aquarius stance on the smattering of negative press relating to the “us and them” model (the usual “unwashed hippy” rhetoric)—that they received in the lead up to the festival. “There had been a movement of younger people moving to the northern NSW coastal towns,” explains Johnny Allen. The village’s transformation from a rural farming community to its present form can be traced to 1973, when Nimbin became the unlikely host of the Aquarius Festival – … In the north-east corner of Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales is a small former dairying and banana farming community. The White Company, an experimental musical theatre group, were among the performers at the 1973 Aquarius Festival, who also toured the country to promote the festival. Call them lefty, or green, but the protagonists of the Aquarius movement started something in May of 1973 in Nimbin, and it’s something that we would do well to take heed of today. Nimbin… Wikipedia Citation. commonplace at festivals at the time (although Aquarius certainly had all of those things). The Aquarius festival started on May 12 1973 and went for ten days. For suggested attribution, see our copyright page. I ended up being named director of Aquarius which was the cultural arm of the organisation, and Graeme ended up as festival director. The kinda true story of a DJ held at gunpoint and made to play nothing but The Smiths. When the Aquarius movement chose Nimbin as its spiritual home, the fabric of the sleepy village changed forever. The Aquarius Legacy Excerpt from "Nimbin & Environs, 1996 " by Mousetrap Media. He’d been working in Sydney running the alternative music venue, The Arts Factory, and remembers fondly the weekends that they used to shut the venue and invite the regulars to open farm festivals, where they spent the weekend listening to local bands and having a ball. Finding somewhere to house Johnny and Graeme’s vision proved to be difficult. Please see Wikipedia's template documentation for further citation fields that may be required. The festival did not advertise through mainstream media and relied on word of mouth for its promotion. The Aquarius Festival aimed to celebrate alternative thinking and sustainable lifestyles. Australia's equivalent to the Woodstock Festival and the birthplace for Australia's hippie movement. The greatest LGBTQIA+ movies of all time, according to some cultured queer VIPs. "... you know we're all artists, and in some way or another the true art is life.". It was a heady time. No one ever said, ‘Such and such will be on at two o’clock.’ It didn’t work like that. Here he details the history and successes of the movement since the Nimbin Aquarius Festival in 1973. Nimbin shot to fame when it hosted the 1973 Aquarius Festival, attracting students, hippies and visionaries from all over Australia. Write CSS OR LESS and hit save. Johnny applied for the job of Cultural Director that was being advertised by the AUS (Australian Union of Students) and ended up sitting at a desk in their office in Melbourne opposite Graeme Dunstan, who would be his partner in organising the Aquarius festival. You are free to copy, distribute, remix and build upon this content as long as you credit the author and the State Library of NSW as the source. The 1973 Aquarius Festival has since been the Holy Grail, the pin point in time when alternative folk gathered to celebrate their new rural community life in this exotic subtropical village. The core value, ethos if you will, of the festival was that it rejected the traditional forms of performance, art, and music that were commonplace at festivals at the time (although Aquarius certainly had all of those things). The village’s transformation from a rural farming community to its present form can be traced to 1973, when Nimbin became the unlikely host of the Aquarius Festival – a counter-culture arts and music gathering presented by the radical Australian Union of Students. You can access digitised sound recordings from the Rainbow Archive online and help transcribe them on the Library's Amplify website. Nimbin shot to fame when it hosted the 1973 Aquarius Festival, attracting students, hippies and visionaries from all over Australia. Johnny Allen was the director of the iconic Aquarius movement, and remembers the backdrop of the Aquarius movement fondly. Follow. He chuckles, and replies that it inescapably is. Share your Nimbin Aquarius Festival 1973 experience with others. One of four boys, raised in Fern Street, Islington, Neilson’s life stood in stark contrast to those of his brothers. ‍ A 10-day ‘festival without a program’ was proposed where people lived in ‘an experiential community’, built their dwellings and lived in tribes. So it was very much radical in its form, as well as its ideals. Due to a slip in soil fertility, among other factors, Nimbin’s core industry was slumping, and the fact that the village was off the traditional tourist routes meant that it was really in a bad state financially. 29 Jan. 1972 Toads Nitely Musick Express Rashamra Blackfeather Mary Hopkin Houndstooth Vytas Serelis Tom Paxton. “So it was really every man and his dog. Many of those who came to Nimbin for the festival stayed on in the town afterwards, purchasing cheap land and setting up communal living arrangements on large shared properties. Nimbin Aquarius Festival 1973. Nimbin Aquarius Festival Title Records of the Nimbin Aquarius Festival Date Range 1973-1974 Collection Number MS 6945 Extent 0.75 metres (1 ms box + 1 large folio box) Language of Materials English Repository National Library of Australia Introduction Conditions Governing Access Unlike the current climate in Australia, where you get fined for picking your nose and can barely walk out your front door for tripping over red tape, Johnny’s generation was free to explore new ways of doing things. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. It was the fourth in a biannual series of festivals, first organised by the National Union of Australian University Students (NUAUS). A similarly relevant historical landmark was the 1979 ‘Battle for Terania Creek’, where the community of Nimbin staged huge protests to protect their local rainforest. The idea that your life was your greatest work of art, and that there’s plenty of different ways to live it, is what Aquarius was all about. Find basic festival info, artist line-up, aftermovies etc. It had been featured on ABC program Four Corners earlier in the year as an example of a rural town in decline, unbeknownst to the Aquarius organisers. In an effort to capture this period of Australian history, the Library acquired the extensive Rainbow Archive between 1988 and 1996. The third added "Aquarius" to its name and was held in Canberra in 1971. But, for almost a year the perfect location alluded them. The Nimbin Aquarius Festival of 1973 marked a watershed in Australian popular history. A fledgling version of the festival had previously been held in 1971 at the ANU in Canberra, but it was more traditional in its form; music, theatre, film screenings. Have a listen to a sample. The Aquarius Festival was a counter-cultural arts and music festival organised by the Australian Union of Students.The first NUAUS festival was held in Sydney ca 1966, while the second, Melbourne, third in Canberra and last (Aquarius) was held in Nimbin, New South Wales in 1973.. The Aquarius Festival aimed to celebrate alternative thinking and sustainable lifestyles. When Nimbin agreed to host the 1973 Aquarius Festival, the influx of university students and hippies changed the small dairy community forever. Unlike earlier festivals such as the Sunbury Pop Festival in Melbourne (run 1972-1975), Aquarius didn't showcase big name artists - the focus was on creating culture rather than consuming it. What if you could cut out the middleman and develop your film with something you already have loads of, something like… beer? There’s been so-called ‘hippies’ on the local council, integrating with the infrastructure.” The fact that a large number of the Aquarius attendees never left has undeniably had a profound effect on what is now known as the Rainbow Region. 6 years ago | 12 views. The website is illustrated with recently digitised photographs from the archive by Roger Marchant, taken between 1973 and 1985. “Nothing was programmed,” he tells me. Many of the festival-goers were unified by their passion for environmental conservation,  sustainability, harmony and freedom. 1973, First Aquarius Festival, Nimbin, 1973, the first hippie festival in Australia was a mixture of back-to-earth skills laced with idealism and pot, [1] [picture] / Lee Pearce. “So it very much came off the back of the optimistic and revolutionary thinking of the time. Communes like the Tuntable Falls community, are still there today. Thanks mostly to the years of consciousness-raising and advocacy done by dirty hippies in the 70’s, the legalisation of recreational weed is a live-wire issue today. “Two hundred to 300 people would show up, and there was no programme or anything like that, no charge, at the end of the festival I’d just walk around with my hat and people would throw in a couple of shillings so we could pay for the truck and the sound system. The Emporium has been providing groceries and fresh produce to the local community since 1973. This wasn’t a rock festival like Woodstock—comparisons are tempting—no, Aquarius was about exploring different ways to live. The Nimbin Aquarius Festival was a counter-cultural arts and music festival organised by the Australian Union of Students. CTRL + SPACE for auto-complete. Please read our special conditions of entry before visiting us. Experimental structures were created by architecture students from Sydney, vegetarian banquets were cooked up and shared, and workshops were held to exchange skills and knowledge with one another. The village’s transformation from a rural farming community to its present form can be traced to 1973, when Nimbin became the unlikely host of the Aquarius Festival – a counter-culture arts and music gathering presented by the radical Australian Union of Students. Rare colour film footage of Australia's Nimbin Aquarius Festival, the historic event organized by the Australian Union of Students in 1973. Many religious groups, such as the Krishna Consciousness Movement, attended the festival and held ceremonies. A scene from the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, 1973. Johnny and Graeme knew that they needed to head north to warmer pastures to pull off their great heist (but not so far as to cross the border to the notoriously conservative Queensland). Nimbin was a dairy town in decline. Watch the Trailer For ‘Shoplifters of the World’, The Grateful Dead Helped Lithuania’s Basketball Team Win an Olympic Medal, $95K Banksy Artwork Burnt so it Could Be Sold as Digital Art. I don’t know whether they had dollar signs flashing in their eyes or what, but the meeting voted unanimously to host the festival, and we went on from there. “I’d quite often be in Perth on Monday, Adelaide on Tuesday, and back to Sydney by Friday. “We were almost ready to give up and resort to going back to a university campus,” he remembers. In this video he shows us the costume he wore for the one performance he and his troupe put on for the festival.The red, one-piece elastic suit has silver dots on it, the red representing the fire and the silver dots the energy coming out of the fire. The 1973 Aquarius Festival was a ten day music, art and cultural gathering of like-minded people who were at the forefront of the counterculture and alternative lifestyles movement in Australia. I had come to Australia to see if there was any kind of counterculture here at all... ... you know we're all artists, and in some way or another the true art is life. I think it’s natural to think that you always know better when you’re young, but as I get older I realise that things tend to go in circles.”. It was just whoever felt like taking to the stage did. But not before Johnny and Graeme organised a meeting with the local population to get their blessing. The Archive comprises a wide range of oral histories, photographs, ephemera and papers documenting the Aquarius Festival, its lasting impact, and the motivations of the participants. Until eventually, some poor map reading led Johnny to the honey pot. Browse more videos. The oral histories in the Rainbow Archive come from a range of perspectives, discussing in detail the origins of the festival and its founders from the Australian Union of Students; the inspiration of festivals abroad such as the infamous Woodstock in the USA;  the reasons for the selection of Nimbin (then a fading dairy town) as the site for an all-encompassing festival of creation, creativity and anti-consumerism; the work that went into transforming the town; and the wider effects of the festival on Nimbin, the region, and activism in Australia. We provide advice and support to all public libraries and local councils in NSW. Report. 75 hours of colourful interviews with Nimbin locals talking about the landmark Aquarius Festival of 1973 will be released to the public online for the first time ever. Hair was long, and times were radical, in every sense of the word. The majority of the images cover only the lead-in period for the festival on the days immediately prior to its official commencement on May 12th. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. The Nimbin Aquarius Festival was a counter-cultural arts and music festival organised by the Australian Union of Students.It was the fourth in a biannual series of festivals, first organised by the National Union of Australian University Students (NUAUS). A scene at the Aquarius Festival, Nimbin, 1973. Which meant that there were dull patches, but also that there were some really unexpected jam sessions with 40 or 50 people on the one stage. A scene from the first Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, 1973. The First Australian Universities Arts Festival was held in Sydney in 1967, and the Second Australian Universities Arts Festival was held in Melbourne in 1969. Here is the festival revival guide of Nimbin Aquarius Festival 1973 in Nimbin, Australia. Graeme would join me, and anyone doing anything differently, whether it was music, art, food or politics, or whatever, we’d invite to dinner—we’d throw these big dinners for 20 or 30—and we’d tell them that we’re going to have this festival, and there’s no programme. And it was this thirst for something fresh that led him to Aquarius. Creating highly-coveted sports merch in the process. The 1973 Aquarius Festival was produced by the Australia Union of Students and it was a peak expression of the creative cultural ferment which arose with the anti-war, anti-conscription, student activism of the late 1960s and early l970s. Once the bands left and the dust settled, a few intrepid souls stayed on to live the dreams and ideology of Aquarius and sow the … A salient feature of the festival, both at the time and in recollection, was its incorporation of Aboriginal culture. The Aquarius festival started on May 12 1973 and went for ten days. A MUSICIAN and one of the organisers of the Aquarius Festival, held in Nimbin in 1973, Paul Joseph Neilson, has died after a long battle with cancer. The 1973 Aquarius Festival was a ten day music, art and cultural gathering of like-minded people who were at the forefront of the counterculture and alternative lifestyles movement in Australia. And we slowly accumulated several hundred people who liked the idea and were tuned into it and committed and they helped us put on the festival, it sort of went from there.”. The fourth and last was held in Nimbin, New South Wales in 1973. We encouraged people to come as small, tribal groups, and to be self-sufficient, but also to contribute to the festival in terms of entertainment.”. The 1973 Aquarius Festival in Nimbin was part of a broader paradigm shift in our culture. The Library has recently acquired original artwork by Indigenous artist Bronwyn Bancroft for her children’s book Kangaro, On Thursday 26 October, staff from the State Library of NSW traveled to Nimbin for a special event being held in partner, Please read our special conditions of entry before visiting us. Col and I looked up at one another and had a sort of, ‘Aha, eureka!’ moment.”. He chuckled and replied, “Yes I suppose I did, with the naivety of youth. “Part of the message was that you are the programme. The Festival changed the small country town and the surrounding region forever. The ten-day event was held from 12 to 23 May 1973 and co-directed by Johnny Allen and Graeme Dunstan. FESTIVAL PROGRAMME Sat. You can! Aquarius In 1972, scouts from the Australian Union of Students came to the village and persuaded the Nimbin Progress Association to allow a festival to be held here. “And then Col James (the architect) and I got lost on our way to Lismore Airport one day and we wandered into Nimbin at sunset. With upwards of 90% of the Barrier Reef bleached and effectively destroyed, and the councils of New South Wales being involuntarily merged in order to eradicate elected resistance to Coal Seam Gas drilling, perhaps we need the Aquarius movement more than ever. Prior to the festival, Johnny and Graeme had put deposits on the land that they were leasing to hold the festival, the idea being that attendees could then purchase the land and set up communal living places afterwards, which they did.