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    An alternative way to explore and explain the mysteries of our world. "Published since 1985, online since 2001."

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Alternate Perceptions Magazine, September 2016


THE TENT

by: Keith Stewart



This is a record of events I’ve just got to put down in print. It’s personal, things that happened back in 1971, although I can remember everything like it was yesterday.

You could call it “Science Fiction” or “ Fantasy.” Actually, it’s true.

I had a friend, Dave, who asked me to join him on a trip. He had been offered a lift by some other friends of his who were going to the “ Glastonbury Fayre” free music festival being held near the village of Pilton, Somerset, just in the next county from us. It seemed too good a chance to miss so I tagged along with my tent, an old two-man type. It did have a good groundsheet though and did it’s job well. This tent proved to be popular, as I would find out later.

Incidentally, this was only the second year of the event which would become the global phenomenon recognised and celebrated as the “Glastonbury Festival.” Anyway, these other friends of this friend of mine Dave, were Klaus and Corrina, an older, Austrian couple, thirty something, very amiable and easy going and well travelled; a couple of old hands really. Klaus was a sweet guy and a little quirky. He wore leather shorts, and at one point I almost felt obliged to say something like “Nice shorts Klaus. Where did you get them?” but I thought better of it. Luckily, they were happy to take friends of friends to the festival in their luxurious camper, and in fact they seemed to take it all in their stride.

By the time we left their place it was getting near to being full but they still found time and space to pick up hitchers. One of these was Malik, a guy dressed in full length black robes, who was intending to rendezvous with his band of African drummers. He rode along with us for the last few miles smiling enigmatically and seemed to take it on himself to assure me on a few occasions that “Everything would be fine.”

Before this trip I had already been to “The 1969 Bath Festival Of Blues” and the 1969/70 Isle Of Wight festivals, also on free rides. I saw some great acts of the day. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Led Zeppelin, stand out in the memory bank for me. Those were definitely good times on the cheap because, in retrospect, they were the early days on the festival scene and nothing like the massive commercial gatherings of today.

On the wall, in the van, was a poster advertising the “Glastonbury Fayre.” Now the blurb on this poster went as far as to claim that the event was going to “tap the universe” no less and that the construction for the first time of the pyramid stage would contribute massively with the Holy Spring it was built on and the positioning of natural surrounding ley lines.

The site was to form a sacred geometry and create a portal to multi-dimensions. So a little bit more than some rave in a muddy field. Now I was a pretty down to earth kid in general and I took most things with a pinch of salt, but I was aware of esoteric writings, and I cannot deny that I simply found them interesting. I was also quite cynical for my age. After all, one can read about these things but one never quite believes that this kind of thing will actually happen to one.

Also on this poster was a list of acts due to play. I saw David Bowie’s name and liked the idea of seeing the lad play, as I remember at that time I had one of his albums. Definitely unique I thought, although I never did get round to catching him. Something else came up in the interim.

We arrived at the site in the early afternoon of the first day, Midsummer’s Eve. I grabbed my tent and started walking with a few others down to the fields surrounding the pyramid stage. Pretty soon I met up with some guys who happened to be the members of a Blues/Rock band that I was playing with a couple of years before around the Gosport/Fareham area. We had a good time with it and managed to get quite a following for awhile. I could see that I would be chewing the fat with them for a bit so I asked my van mates to take the tent, pitch it, come back and find me to tell me where they and my tent were. They did.

Eventually, I left my old band in their huddle and started wandering around, checking the place out, getting to know the surroundings. There were not too many people, just a few thousand at that point. There was music playing everywhere, coming from small groups sitting around with guitars, woodwind instruments and bongo’s, that sort of thing. There were naked people everywhere, there was a lot of mud, and there was the constant drumming that was sounding around the slopes of the site. Most people looked to be in a state of natural bliss and there was a basic kind of energy around the place. Everything was free.

The day crept into dusk and the dusk gave way to a clear, starry night, Solstice night.

I decided at some point to go and find the tent, maybe get some sleep and start over the next day.

So I started walking up the hill that overlooked the site, to where I knew that the tent would be, feeling nothing more than a bit tired. I got to the top and I could see the tent about a hundred yards away.

Then I felt a tingling sensation all over my body and felt compelled to turn around and look up at the sky. Everything kind of stopped in that moment. And suddenly there it was. I didn’t see or hear it coming, it was just there in the night sky hanging majestically above me, right overhead, suspended and revolving slowly. Noiselessly. I had a flash thought to myself “So it’s true then” but I was involved in the detail of this thing. I was totally absorbed by it.

As I watched I could see that there was an outer rim of soft yellow lights, like windows, revolving slowly in an anti-clockwise direction. There was an inner core of lights also revolving slowly, but in a clockwise direction. These two different motions seemed to be holding the thing in place. The upper body was domed and glowed fluorescently with a shade of violet. I have no idea how long I stood there watching. In a way, it all seemed very natural.

Suddenly, all the various moving parts fused together into a whole. It then flew off at quite incredible speed towards Glastonbury Tor. It reminded me of the way a dragonfly will hover and then suddenly lurch off at some ridiculous tangent with apparently no effort whatsoever. The Tor was a few miles away to my right from where I was standing. It was as if it was drawn there, as if responding to some magnetic pull within the earth. It disappeared in a dead straight line above the Tor.

In fact, it disappeared in what I would describe in time as less than a second. I tried to take the immensity of all this in but my mind reeled with it’s limitations. Whatever this thing was, it was supremely powerful, it could do whatever it chose to do. It appeared to be benevolent, but I don’t pretend to understand it’s purpose, if any.

I did think to myself “This must have happened to people throughout history. In no way am I the first to see this.” I could go on for a bit here but really nothing much happened after that. Everything seemed rather insignificant in the wake of events I had just witnessed.

But, for the record, I made my way back to the tent, thinking mainly about nothing in particular, which was odd, given what had just happened. I spoke briefly about what I had just seen. Somebody in the tent said “Wow,” half-heartedly, and then went back to sleep.

I woke up the next day and packed up my gear, including the tent. I decided to make myself scarce and get back home, so I hitched. When I got there I found a decent bed and slept like a baby.

The next day dawned, life went on. I felt different. Like I said before, it’s personal.
But I’m glad I was there.


Thursday, March 28, 2024