Hear Ye, Hear ye – we’re ringing in the fourth SydArthur Festival. Thirteen years ago, in 2006, two psychedelic giants left this earth just 28 days apart. A full lunar month: how poetic. Such poetry in their deaths obliges us to come together under the moon to celebrate, nay cerebrate, for the entire time between Syd Barrett’s waxing and Arthur Lee’s Waning.
By dint of having died just one lunar month apart, Syd and Arthur have given us the rich opportunity to make a carnival time of this serendipitous cosmic accident. Accident? Do the heroes of western culture move in any less mysterious manner than the gods of ancient times? Let’s take advantage of their overt poetry, of their celestial dance, and avail ourselves of the chance to build the first truly psychic and near-religious rock’n’roll festival. For this is – in the psychedelic spirit of its two major players – a mind-manifesting festival. No pricey tickets, no camping like sardines in some infernal swamp. For those of you who choose to engage in these proceedings, you may do so from your own homes, your favourite areas, but most specifically from within your own minds.
Between the pillars of Arthur and Syd lies a rich fertile land inhabited by a multitude of psychedelic events and of artists, authors and practitioners whose births and deaths fall within this 28-day period. These too are venerated.
Let us put our minds together, deeply consider these people and events, and in doing so harness the energy of their seismic actions. Overall, during this moon tour let us consciously raise our Collective Consciousness.