By A Special Correspondent
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on January 30, 1972
Sun, fun, pot and not too many swim togs
MELBOURNE, Saturday. — Sunshine, pop music, nude bathing and fun . . . that was the scene at Sunbury today when what is sure to become Australia’s largest pop festival got under way.
Aerial view of the stage and spectators.Credit: Age Archives
By early afternoon already more than 20,000 pop fans from all over Australia were at the festival.
Cars still jammed all roads leading to the site, about 25 miles out of Melbourne.
A canvas city sprang up overnight on Friday as people began arriving for the festival, to start at 10 am today.
Tents were put on the hills overlooking the stage and along the bank of the creek running through the property.
Those who did not have tents used blankets, plastic sheets, or anything else they could find to fashion themselves a shelter.
Sunbury Pop Festival. Fans leave with their belongings at the end of the festival, February 1972Credit: Age Archives
There were so many people there last night a pop group volunteered to entertain them — 12 hours early.
Larger
Festival organisers said the festival looked like becoming even larger.
Late last week they had predicted a crowd of 40,000 at Sunbury over the three days.
Nude bathers were a common sight in the creek.
At the Sunbury Festival, January 1972.Credit: Age archive
The police were there in force, but they were friendly and polite towards the pop fans. No arrests have been made.
The St John Ambulance Brigade, which had more than one hundred personnel at the site, was kept busy all day with complaints ranging from headaches to bad cuts.
One man was taken to hospital after hitting his head against a rock when he dived into the creek.
Small groups of people could be seen smoking marihuana in the open.
If anything it was alcohol and not drugs which tended to spoil the festival atmosphere.
Despite the desperate attempts by organisers to ban all alcohol on the site, youths still managed to sneak bottles and cans of beer and flagons of wine past the inspectors.
The youths sat in groups around camp fires drinking all night and were up as early as 7 am to continue their drinking.
Several young people were arrested for drunkenness tonight and others were taken away for questioning about drugs.
The hotel at Digger’s Rest, three miles from the farm where the festival is being held, was closed by police at 9 pm.