Aquarius

Sunday 14 September at Henkel Street Cinema brings you AQUARIUS, the eighth offering in this year’s Sunday School of Rock series.

Film maker Wendy Champagne’s fascinating documentary about the 1973 Nimbin Aquarius Festival pulls together interviews and rare archival footage to examine how the fourth and final iteration of an event that started as the biannual Australian Universities Arts Festival in Sydney in 1967 came to become a blueprint for an enduring cultural movement.

Here’s what the producers have to say about the film:

“Dreamers, Tree-Huggers and Radical Ratbags. In May 1973, 10,000 artists, activists, hippies, radical students, gurus and visionaries descended on a small dairy farm for 10 days on social and cultural exploration that changed a generation. Those 10 days birthed an irrepressible movement that may have been the much-needed blueprint for sustainable change. When thousands of young people travelled the back roads of Northern NSW 50 years ago to camp and explore a new way of living at Nimbin Aquarius Festival something unexpected happened amongst all the bliss, drugs and drama. Through extensive collaboration and hours of precious newly-uncovered footage, the film directs our gaze to the Festival – its inception and its aftermath – and examines the power of that one event to continue to shape history.”

The producers may be “over-egging the pudding” somewhat in their desire to sell the film and the credibility of the Nimbin Aquarius Festival as the birthplace of Australian Environmental and Counter-Cultural movements. The estimate of attendees is definitely at the higher end with other sources stating figures closer to 5000 festival goers. Similarly, the “irrepressible” nature of the movement is probably debatable considering what’s still going on in mainstream politics around the world.

Despite this there’s plenty about the festival and its historical context that’s worth our attention. It was the first time that organisers of any event in Australia sought permission from traditional owners prior to launch. It was also the first time a festival included a Welcome to Country ceremony. The festival had no formal program. The festival manifesto declared that they would not be “sold culture” and instead invited “attendees to be active participants and creators of culture and community.” The newly formed Australia Council for the Arts paid for the airfares of South African pianist Dollar Brand (aka Abdullah Ibrahim), French highwire artist Philippe Petit (who would both amaze and horrify the world by walking a tightrope stretched between the Twin Towers in New York the following year). Also performing were the Bauls of Bengal led by the Purna Das also known as the “King of the Bauls”. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re both standing either side of Bob Dylan on the cover of his “John Wesley Harding” album. The Bauls of Bengal had been living in Woodstock since the late 60s becoming fast friends with the rock and roll elites.

The 1973 Aquarius festival programme (or non-programme) wasn’t solely an international affair with local Australian and New Zealand music and theatre artists also in attendance – some of whom, like Peter Joseph, founder of the Aquarius Magik Caravan who never left Nimbin after the festival.