Aquarius Festival

{{infobox music festival

| music_festival_name = Nimbin Aquarius Festival

| image =

| caption =

| location = {{Nowrap|Canberra, Nimbin, New South Wales,}} Australia

| years_active = 1971, 1973

| founders = Johnny Allen and Graeme Dunstan

| promoter =

| dates = 12 to 23 May 1973

| genre =

| 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. 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. The third added "Aquarius" to its name and was held in Canberra in 1971.[http://www.milesago.com/festivals/aquarius71.htm Festivals - Aquarius Festival, Canberra, 1971] MilesAgo. (Retrieved 26 October 2006) The fourth and last was held in Nimbin, New South Wales in 1973.[http://www.milesago.com/festivals/aquarius73.htm Festivals - Aquarius Festival, Nimbin, 1973] MilesAgo. (Retrieved 26 October 2006)

The Aquarius Festival aimed to celebrate alternative thinking and sustainable lifestyles.{{cite web |url=http://www.echonews.com/index.php?page=View%20Article&article=21065&issue=332 |title=Rainbow Region born from black and white |author=S Sorrensen |access-date=2009-11-03 |work=The Northern Rivers Echo |publisher=TAOW Ltd }} The ten-day event was held from 12 to 23 May 1973 and co-directed by Johnny Allen and Graeme Dunstan. Vernon Treweeke also played a part in organising the event. It is often described as Australia's equivalent to the Woodstock Festival and the birthplace for Australia's hippie movement.{{cite web |url=http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/relationships/peace-love-and-real-life/2008/03/14/1205472071315.html?page=2 |title=Peace, love and real life |access-date=2009-11-03 |date=14 March 2008 |work=Brisbane Times |publisher=Fairfax Digital }} It has also been credited with being the first event that sought the permission to use the land from traditional owners, and included a Welcome to Country ceremony.{{Cite journal|last=Scantlebury|first=Alethea|date=2014-10-13|title=Black Fellas and Rainbow Fellas: Convergence of Cultures at the Aquarius Arts and Lifestyle Festival, Nimbin, 1973|url=http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/923|journal=M/C Journal|language=en|volume=17|issue=6|doi=10.5204/mcj.923|doi-access=free}} The estimated attendance at Nimbin was between 5,000 and 10,000 people.{{Cite journal|last=Carr|first=Andy|date=Autumn 2013|title=Archives of Aquarius|url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/sl_magazine_autumn_2013.pdf|journal=SL Magazine|publisher=State Library of New South Wales|volume=6|issue=1|pages=20–21}}

Performers

Performers at the festival included the White Company - an experimental theatre troupe featuring a number of alternative culture artists including Peter Carolan - singer Paul Joseph, Donny McCormack (ex-Nutwood Rug Band), The Larrikins and Ian Farr. Also appearing were Indian street performers the Bauls of Bengal, the South African pianist Dollar Brand (later known as Abdullah Ibrahim), classical-ambient musician Lindsay Bourke,{{cite web | url=http://www.milesago.com/Almanac/1973.html | title=The Almanac – 1973 | last=Kimball | first=Duncan | publisher=Milesago: Australasian Music and Popular Culture 1964–1975. Ice Productions | via=National Library of Australia | archive-url=http://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20090319044740/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/35967/20090315-0738/www.milesago.com/Almanac/1973.html | archive-date=19 March 2009 | access-date=24 February 2022 | url-status=live }}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} and tightrope walker and unicyclist Philippe Petit, who gained worldwide fame the following year by walking between the rooftops of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. The New Zealand-based musical and theatrical troupe Blerta also made an appearance, starring the likes of Bruno Lawrence and Geoff Murphy, both of whom later went on to produce a number of successful feature films together.

Legacy

The festival had a permanent effect on the economy of Nimbin, as many Festival participants decided to remain in the district.{{cite web |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/New-South-Wales/Nimbin/2005/02/17/1108500198341.html |title=Nimbin - New South Wales - Australia - Travel |access-date=2009-11-03 |date=8 February 2004 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |publisher=Fairfax Digital | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091014055624/http://www.smh.com.au/news/New-South-Wales/Nimbin/2005/02/17/1108500198341.html| archive-date= 14 October 2009 | url-status= live}} The area was previously a dairying and banana growing region in severe decline. Some of those that stayed might be defined as hippies, but in fact the larger percentage came from all sorts of backgrounds and life experience, ranging from 18 to 80 years old.

One group pooled resources after the Nimbin Aquarius Festival and bought a then {{convert|1200|acre|ha|order=flip|adj=on|sigfig=1}} property at Tuntable Falls in the next valley east, below Mount Nardi, and formed a community called the "Co-Ordination Co-Operative". Other groups followed suit and formed communes that continue today. Examples include Paradise Valley Pastoral Company and Nmbngee.

Interviews were conducted in 1992 documenting the alternative lifestyle movement of northern NSW in the 1970s, focusing on the town of Nimbin and the 1973 Aquarius Festival. Interviewees discussed how they arrived in Nimbin, their efforts in organising the Aquarius Festival, and the lasting impact the Festival had on the township.{{Cite web|url=https://primo-slnsw.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ADLIB110317356&context=L&vid=SLNSW&search_scope=EEA&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US|title=Richmond-Tweed Oral History Group - Under the Rainbow. Interviews with residents following alternative life styles in the Lismore area, 1992|website=State Library of New South Wales Catalogue|access-date=5 June 2018}}

Aquarius is a 2024 documentary directed by Wendy Champagne, chronicling the Nimbin Aquarius Festival of 1973.{{cite web |title=Aquarius |url=https://www.adelaidefilmfestival.org/program/2024/aquarius |website=Adelaide Film Festival |access-date=5 March 2025 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Aquarius |url=https://documentaryaustralia.com.au/project/aquarius/ |website=Documentary Australia |access-date=5 March 2025 |language=en-AU |date=6 November 2023}}

References

External links

[http://www.nimbinweb.com.au/nimbin/history/history2.htm Nimbin History]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQokUwK1Ris Archival footage of 1973 Nimbin and Festival]
[https://rmit.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/61RMIT_INST/1ke29l0/alma9922249413201341 1971 Aquarius Festival Programme (RMIT University Catalyst Supplement)]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20100222091656/http://www.nimbinmardigrass.com/aquarius.html 1973 Aquarius Festival Archival Photos]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v80h9FUyK5c Nimbin Good Times: Australia's Aquarius Festival (1973) - video]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-oSjzZp-Do GTK (ABC Television) Episode 666 on Nimbin Aquarius Festival - including interviews with locals]
{{Cite web|url=https://amplify.sl.nsw.gov.au/?sort_by=title&order=asc&collection_id=1|title=Under the Rainbow. Interviews with residents following alternative life styles in the Lismore area – Richmond Tweed Oral History Group|website=Amplify – Rainbow Archives, State Library of New South Wales|access-date=5 June 2018}}
Lee Stickells, [https://www.sahanz.net/wp-content/uploads/R03%2001%20Stickells%20And-Everywhere-Those-Strange-Polygonal-Igloos.pdf “‘And Everywhere Those Strange Polygonal Igloos’: Framing a History of Australian Countercultural Architecture”] in Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand: 30, Open, edited by Alexandra Brown and Andrew Leach (Gold Coast, Qld: SAHANZ, 2013), vol. 2, pp 555-568.