Festival Welfare Services
Encyclopedia
Festival Welfare Services is a United Kingdom voluntary organisation established in 1972 to improve welfare services at pop festivals. Prior to formation of FWS a variety of voluntary groups were providing services at festivals which, at the instigation of Release
, came together to improve their cooperation and effectiveness. Following the Windsor
and Watchfield festivals the government provided funding, from 1976, for a full-time worker (Penny Mellor) to coordinate FWS activities, although the majority of work remained voluntary. Volunteers often came from a festival-sympathetic background and thus were quite relaxed with even some of the wilder events but also sometimes distrusted by the authorities. Government funding was withdrawn in 1995.
Release
- Media :* Film release, the public distribution of a film* Legal release, a legal instrument* News release, a communication directed at the news media* Software release life cycle, the public distribution of software code and support materials...
, came together to improve their cooperation and effectiveness. Following the Windsor
Windsor Free Festival
The Windsor Free Festival was a British Free Festival held in Windsor Great Park from 1972 to 1974. Organised by some London commune dwellers, notably Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle, it was in many ways the forerunner of the Stonehenge Free Festival, particularly in the brutality of its final suppression...
and Watchfield festivals the government provided funding, from 1976, for a full-time worker (Penny Mellor) to coordinate FWS activities, although the majority of work remained voluntary. Volunteers often came from a festival-sympathetic background and thus were quite relaxed with even some of the wilder events but also sometimes distrusted by the authorities. Government funding was withdrawn in 1995.
Publications
- Healthy festival sites: environmental health guidelines for open-air festivals - John Stollery, Festival Welfare Services - 1980
- Community festivals handbook - John Hoyland, Community Projects Foundation, Festival Welfare Services - Social Science - 1983 - 84 pages
- Festivals: a survival guide - Festival Welfare Services - Festivals - 1987 - 12 pages
- Festivals: safer drug use : a users guide - Trevor McCarthy, Festival Welfare Services - Youth - 1989 - 4 pages
- website: Festival Welfare Services
External links
- festival welfare services website
- Penny Mellor's early experiences with FWS
- FWS report on 1977 Stonehenge Free FestivalStonehenge Free FestivalThe Stonehenge Free Festival was a British free festival from 1972 to 1984 held at Stonehenge in England during the month of June, and culminating on the summer solstice on June 21. The festival was a celebration of various alternative cultures...
- FWS report on 7-7-77 Glastonbury Free Festival: Street, Somerset