The Deeply Vale Festivals were a unique rock festival held in northwest England in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979. Chris Hewitt was one of the main organisers of the event and went to produce many other festivals and concerts and start a record company Ozit Morpheus Records.. Starting with an audience of 300 camping for two days in 1976, the festival grew by 1978 and 1979 to 20,000 people watching bands and camping for six days. The Home Office-sponsored body that reported on many pop festivals from the mid 1970's- Festival Welfare Services- said in a report on the 1978 that Deeply Vale Festival "was actually better organised than the large Bob Dylan concert at Blackbushe the same summer". It was the biggest free festival in England ending its annual run after four years in 1979.

As with the 70's festivals Deeply Vale hoped to bring together music of all styles, to create new styles and genres and maybe break a few. Since music seems to follow trends set already in history by names such as The Beatles, The Kinks, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, The Doors and many others who broke the musical mould of the 50's and 60's turning the times into a psychedelic outlook on life. Deeply Vale has been credited as a catalyst for many current bands who have formed since the 70's festivals.

Luke Bainbridge (journalist and editor of the Observer Music Monthly- and attendee of Deeply Vale Festivals as a youngster) said in the 2004 ITV documentary Truly,Madly,Deeply Vale that the Deeply Vale Festivals were far more organised than Glastonbury by 1978.In July 2007 the DVD "Deeply Vale Festivals" was released, it contains the 49 minute Truly, Madly, Deeply Vale film plus other rare interviews, crowd footage and band performances taking it up to a running time of around 3 hours 40 minutes.

The  Deeply Vale Festivals were also the first of the hippy music festivals to mix punk bands on the bill in amongst festival stalwarts like Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Tractor (who had already achieved some notoriety as a John Peel band) and Here and Now. The Fall were regulars at the festival at a young age, and Durutti Column played their fourth ever gig on the Deeply Vale festival stage.Both these bands were introduced by a fledgling Tony Wilson who had just started his own record company and compered at Deeply Vale in 1978.

Deeply Vale 2008

Following the release of the documentary, there were plans to resurrect the festival in 2006. The idea has been merged with relaunching the Bickershaw Festival to become the Deeply Vale Bickershaw Festival in 2008.

References

• Haslam, Dale "Get set for hot summer of rock". Rochdale Observer. Retrieved on 2007-09-09.

External links

• Deeply Vale official site