Glastonbury and where it all started – remembering Worthing's Phun City Festival 55 years ago
We all know about Glastonbury and why it is held dear in the hearts of music lovers but how many realise the festival scene started in Worthing?
It is 55 years since Worthing musician Mick Farren set up the Phun City Festival in July 1970, a free-thinking gathering that was the first of its kind.
From The UFO Club to the Lyceum, psychedelic and early progressive rock bands were being promoted in the 1960s and Mick wanted to build on that.
He said at the time that Phun City was a development of UFO, providing a three-day environment with a lot for free. The aim was to charge to get in but that isn't quite what happened.
Fallon said: "Phun City is being run for freaks, by freaks, without too much capital."
Big names were signed up, with chart-topping British pop group Mungo Jerry headlining, and the festival took place at Ecclesdon Common from July 24-26, 1970.
Farmer J. Fitzroy Somerset rented out a field to Fallon and said ‘what he does with it is his business’.
Professor Clive Webb, from the history department at the University of Sussex, provides an excellent history of the festival here.
It was quite the event and we would love to hear from anyone who was there. Did you witness the fight between stallholders? Did you enjoy the bands? Can you describe the scene?