The Selection

The 12th of August 1989 which was a Saturday was one of the changing points of my life and partly made me the person I am today. It was late around 10ish at night which isn’t that late in my eyes but is for the four-year-old me. My mum caught wind of an event happening in a place called   Longwick in Buckinghamshire and she really wanted to see some live acts as at some or even most events you would get some sort of live performance by underground artists who were popularised by rave culture. I have a brother older than me by a couple of years and we each used to have a babysitter to look after us while my mum went out and let her hair down. As my brother was babysat by this person and I had my own babysitter and on the pretence that I would sleep the night away it was decided that I would go with my mum to this event. The event was called Sunrise Back To The Future and was if not the biggest event the Acid House promoters Sunrise and Back To The Future put on. It was hosted on a field off the M25 (a motorway/highway junction) and brought in thousands of people on this one field to party the night away. Being in the car on the motorway/highway and seeing in the distance what I now know to be a Ferris wheel and other fairground rides I thought that was funny I didn’t know they did circus at night and was new to me. Also to explain it wasn’t just Acid House music and live acts there were bouncy castles,  coffee stands, fairground rides, face painting and so much more and involved smaller businesses around the UK in order to put on the show. I remember walking through the field of the carpark and into the crowd and seeing all these people who looked aggressive but were friendly like anything which was confusing. It was also confusing seeing people on this field in dusk light due to the stage lights and other lights dotted around I really couldn’t put two and two together and was wondering what all these people were doing and being up so late or though I was four so being up in this darkness. Like my mum predicted I went back to sleep up until I was awoken by the promoter onstage who thanked the other promoters and took a five-minute breather for everyone to soak up the sunrise which was coming over the horizon and such a beautiful thing to look at. This was another turning point for me as I had never seen the sun peer over the horizon before and I started to wonder about the sun and its purpose. Thanks to UK kid’s shows like Playdays a popular children’s TV show from the 80s and early 90s I knew it was called The Sun but I didn’t know its purpose or understand the solar system but I did know or wonder that the sun was very hot due to the proximity of being close to it.  The crowd clapped, cheered and whistled as we all took several glances at the new day’s sun before the live acts came on the stage to perform in front of the crowd and carry on with the party vibe which was in full swing.