The first festivals organised
by Bath Arts Workshop (1970 - 1973) were called
The Other Festival, as an alternative to the
main Bath international Festival.
In 1972
they had the use of the 60 room Cleveland Hotel
in Pulteney Street, owned at that time by Charlie Ware.
It was opened by Rocky
and the Jets, who arrived by helicopter. Hawkwind played at
the hotel.
This was the first festival
to be recorded on film by Workshop Films.
1973
was called Another Festival, as they were expected
to continue.
This was an ambitious three
site festival held in Walcot, Twerton and Oddown,
as well as Bath Theatre Royal, owned by Charlie Ware
at the time.
Temporary structures were
built by Comtek in the form of domes.
Alan
Ginsburg made an impromptu performance at the Twerton
Dome to an audience of teenage boys.
The 1974
festival was called The Last Festival as money
worries from the 1973 festival suggested it could be the last! This time a huge big
top visited each of the three sites.
An exhibition of community
technology - COMTEK ran a four day festival at Kensington
Meadows featuring "The Solar Trumpet", "Recycling a car" and
"Whacky Races for kids".
