Narara 84

"Is it parsley or marijuana ? " the hippie chick was saying to the security guard with a 12 gauge pump action shotgun slung over his shoulder , "It could be real and then it may not be ! "
She was waving a sandwich bag full of a green substance in front of this guy and he didn't know what to do , he decided to let her pass on.
" Put the gun away wanker ! " another lark said , later on we found out this gun and a lot more had been confiscated from actual concertgoers.
It was 1984 and we were at the entrance to the Narara 84 rock festival at Somersby , like the year before we decided to lug all our gear in manually a set up a camp site , vehicle sites were more expensive and we didn't have a suitable bus or van anyway.
Once inside there were a few flatbed tray trucks that you could pile your gear onto and they would drive you out into the camping area which was about 2 kilometres squared , by the end of the weekend there would be 30 to 40 thousand campers and the biggest sea of tents I have ever seen.
After losing our tent ( it's the orange one ) many times last year we hatched a plan for 84 , me and my mate Phil got an old bed sheet and a couple of cans of spray paint and made up a flag for our campsite , it was a coiled up cobra with the words " Brain Damage - Woy Woy " emblazoned upon it.
Once we had set up our mother tent and it's ring of smaller tents we erected our flag and stood back and admired our handy work proudly.

Over the next few days the flag was to become a way point for others to find their tents as well , some even stopped for photos , some even stayed for a few hours.
That's when Superman turned up , an enterprising young lad who could see that this would be a good place to camp for a few hours and sell a few acid trips to passers by.
Soon we were all in a large circle on the grass and giggling at each other in the afternoon sun when a familiar face came into focus , it was Poofy Col holding a large foam esky.
Poofy Col was the local gay dude back then , in fact he was the only gay guy we knew in Woy Woy , he was also the local pot dealer.
He lived in the old block of high rise flats at Ettalong on the top floor , we only ever went there once to get some smoko and there was lots of darkened rooms with young half naked guys hanging round , I even seen a guy from school there and he said " Don't tell anyone you seen me here ! "
Col was an older guy who looked like John Lennon and even had the same round spectacles , he wasn't obviously gay and never " put the word " on any of us and I think that was why everyone called him Poofy Col just to remind you.
Col had his asian tranny girlfriend with him and the foam esky was full of pot , he had just arrived and had to lug his gear in as well to the other side of the concert site , he spotted the Woy Woy mob and thought we might like to help him lug in and we of course obliged in return for some of what was in the esky.
So we carried Poofy Col's gear in across the sea of tents like some kind of hippy African safari expedition , single file with our loads on our heads , Col and the tranny out front directing and weaving us through the masses of tents and people.
We returned to the safety of our campsite as the psychedelics started to kick in , one of the lads had fallen asleep which is probably not a good thing to do while tripping and we hatched a cruel plan for him for when he awoke , we would tell him it was Monday and that he had slept all weekend and missed everything ,we even told everyone within a 20 meter radius of our tent that if they seen a guy asking what day it was , they were to say Monday !
Then we woke him up - laughter ensued as the poor guy desperately asked everyone what day it was " It's Monday mate you missed Def Leppard last night they were awesome "
We then observed some going ons across the dam in Old Sydney Town , Old Sydney Town was a life sized replica of Sydney town back in colonial days complete with actors who played the parts of convicts and soldiers etc
Some of these actors were picking up the females who were pretending to scream and run with them down a grassy slope and throw them in the long grass near the fence to the concert , then they were sneaking under the fence !
Not long after the Police appeared on the other side of the fence and were checking the concert out , one lark walks down to the fence and gives them the finger and some obscenities, then another and another.....
Within minutes hundreds of concert goers are lined along the fence stirring up the cops , people were baring their arses and giving the bird , people waving bags of pot and general mayhem.
The cops weren't allowed on site unless the owners requested it and they never came in - how times have changed
Then there was the guy who had just bought a fake dope plant in a plastic pot at the markets and came back to camp to present it to those at the circle , we decided to set it up as some kind of altar god to worship and the guy knelt before it on the ground and said " O master what shall we call you ? " and he gazed blearily up into the heavens.
At that same time a small Cessna airplane with an advertising banner was flying over the concert site - Robert Plant Hordern Pavillion Nov 18
" Robert Plant ! "

.