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Nambassa

What the fifteen or so thousand people who attended the Nambassa Festival found, first of all, was hot sunny weather and a well organised and attractive venue, with good facilities! The main stage was situated at the base of a natural ampi-theatre and provided almost continuous music for the three days; always a central point of interest with plenty of seating room and admirable acoustics. The music was varied and often excellent, notably Schtung, Alistair Riddell and The Wonder Ones, Country Fliers, and Rough Justice.

Christchurch band Godley Head made an ambitious and impressive attempt at Pink Floyd's "Animals" and Auckland Band Living Force turned on some excellent musicianship, but were rather over-obviously Santana inspired and occasionally repetitious to the point of extreme boredom. Star-billed band Skyhooks opened with the (unfortunately rhetorical) question "You won't get bored if we play Rock and Roll will you?" and proceeded to do so in a solidly un-memorable way — professional but hardly awe-inspiring.

Near the main stage the Festival Village was set up, with Information Centre, water, toilets, a theatre, and shops selling jewellery, leather goods, paintings and food. Much of the food provided an alternative to the common food of the city, with prices based on the fact that people had no 'alternative' but to eat it — Waihi being ten miles away. All food was vegetarian, most was expensive.

At the village various political groups were represented, though most in a rather half-hearted way. Leaflets from the CP. (Communist Party), and the PYM (Proressive Youth Movement) were distributed and the Abortion Law Repeal petition gained a substantial number of signatures. Also present were delegations from the Campaign for a Nuclear Free Future and Auckland based Greenpeace. Only one group however, had a permanent stall: Friends of the Earth. They were situated behind the main stage.

Treatment of the festival by the press was characterized by the irrationality and triviality of human beings confronted by something they don't understand. Certainly there were plenty of people smoking dope but the newspapers didn't bother to mention the refreshing absence of drunkenness, violence, selfishness, theft and other modern social afflictions. There were no arrests during the three day period. Full marks to an intelligent Police Squad who, with consideration to the task of busting five thousand dope-smokers, decided their energies would be more productively employed protecting people and their property, and keeping the peace.

These things combined to make Nambassa an outstandingly happy and successful social occasion. Only when one recalls the promise of "A Festival of Alternatives" does a note of disappointment creep in. Politically it was a missed opportunity with inadequate interest in, or utilization of, the tremendous energy for change that was there. People were given little opportunity to actually work for that word "alternative" in positive ways, but were rather left to be content with their present temporary removal from the oppressive system.

As a holiday then, the festival was a success, with a high level of enjoyment and participation from everyone. Which makes it all the more disappointing that a holiday is all it was.

Jonathan Scott