…and celebrate 50 years since the Nimbin Aquarius Festival
The Aquarius Festival was born out of the counterculture of the 1960s and 70s and as Graeme Dunstan, director of the Aquarius Festival said, ‘We were cooking the counterculture of the time’.
When Graeme and Johnny Allen, director of the Aquarius Foundation, jumped in a car and came to Mullumbimby, where a range of alternative people were creating new ways of living, with the idea of the Aquarius Festival they were surprised that they weren’t welcomed with open arms. In fact, the local crew of alternatives said they weren’t interested in hosting the festival in Main Arm and pointed them over the hill towards Nimbin.
As the founder of The Echo, Nicholas Shand (AKA Dad) told me growing up, ‘We said no to having it here in Main Arm but instead, some of us committed to going over for the six weeks beforehand to help the festival get set up’.
So that’s how I ended up there, in utero, with my parents Jane and Nicky, brother Sebastian, Paula Morrow and her son Carlos and musician Donny McCormack and his partner Lynn who was also pregnant.
‘I had been living in the banana shed at Jane and Nicky’s in Coopers Lane with Carlos before we went over to help set up the Aquarius Festival,’ said Paula.
Time to rethink
‘We were looking for alternatives,’ explained Graeme talking about how the festival came into being.
‘We didn’t want to do the war culture, we were trying to rethink things. So that was the inspiration behind the festival. And the idea was that we didn’t need a programme – it was “you are the festival, you be the future you want to see manifest”. That was the challenge we put out to people.’
‘It was just coming from everywhere – it was a real change of consciousness’ said Paula.
‘We had fought and fought and fought against the Vietman War. It was a culmination and beginning of sorts. A survival festival. It was a part of that pivioting of consciousness.
Chaotic when the festival started
‘It was so chaotic when the festival started. The lead up was better for me, people were building things and having meetings. At one meeting I said “we shouldn’t spend all that money on paint to rainbow paint the town – which of course ended up being fantastic. I said we should be replanting these fields, because they were just so bare.’
Jan Pratz who waspart of the Cosmic Song and Dance Company community (now known as Nerada) in Main Arm said their community all headed over as a groupto the festival and shared a community tent together.
‘There were lots of musicians and poets including indigenous poet Kath Walker, who is now known as Oodgeroo Noonuccal, and Blerta with Bruno Lawrence and Tony Barry who was singing with them. They played and it was really rocking and blew everyone away.’
‘We all felt like old hands as we were already living the dream,’ Jan said with a smile.
‘The Aquarius Festival was a turning point and Tuntabull Falls protests were yet to come and the big thing was the environment.’
Dreaming
‘For me the Aquarius was a dreaming,’ explained Graeme.
‘People came together and shared their ideas of what was possible and how to turn our dreams into community.’
Jan agrees saying that a big part of why people were looking at alternative ways of living was that ‘we didn’t want to live in our little houses, we wanted to be a bit more tribal, help others, support one another, be free of mortgages, be self sufficient and create community.’
‘It sounds corny, but dare to dream,’ says Graeme. ‘We had lots of dreams about how things could be, and we pulled them off. Dreams become cultural realities. We persevere. We lived our dreams, built communities, had babies.’
Join in the 50th celebration
Now it is time to redream the future at the upcoming 50-year celebration of the Nimbin Aquarius Festival from 12 to 21 May. Take the chance to dream your dream with the range of events taking place from talking politics and action to health, healing and spitiuality. Check out their program online and buy tickets at: www.aquarius50.com.au.
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