1972: Surviving BICKERSHAW POP FESTIVAL | Bickershaw | Classic BBC Music | BBC Archive

What happens to the 1,500 people who live in a Lancashire mining village when 50,000 pop fans descend on them for the weekend? The underground workers meet the Underground in Bickershaw, a pit stop on the road to Wigan pier.

Austin Mitchell visits, as all manner of hippies, dropouts and assorted music fanatics convene on the normally sedate Lancashire mining village for a pop music extravaganza. Acts booked to play at the Bickershaw Festival include a variety of major US and British acts like Grateful Dead, The Kinks, Captain Beefheart, Hawkwind, Wishbone Ash, and Donovan.

As the festival begins at Naylor’s Farm, Mitchell talks to some of Bickershaw's residents and business owners about what they make of this sudden influx of young revellers, and how they plan to cope with the numbers. He interviews Harry "The Count" Bilkus - one of the brains behind the festival - and beleaguered festival organiser, Jeremy Beadle, whose workload has risen exponentially following the arrest of a fellow organiser just three weeks before the event.

Over the course of the weekend, Mitchell documents the impact this pop behemoth has on the local community, the fans, and the event organisers.


Clip taken from Bickershaw, originally broadcast on BBC One, 15 July, 1972.





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