FESTEN PÅ GÄRDET 1970 (red). Poster, offset print, with “Gärdet” in ink, designed by Thomas Mera Gartz (drummer in Trees, Grass and Stones), original poster from 1970.

Blade dimensions approx. 62x44 cm.

History:
The party at Gärdet, Stockholm 12-14 June 1970.
In the last years of the 60s, there had been a need to do things together, to find something of our own, to counterbalance commercial culture, to experiment and to allow everyone to participate in the creation of culture, old and young.
Some 40 activists gathered in the autumn of 1969 at Arkiv Samtal's premises on Hälsingegatan in Stockholm and planned for an outdoor party at Skeppsholmen. The party would be free and include various kinds of music such as pop, tango, jazz, folk music from around the world and troubadours, there would be the opportunity to make simple instruments, dance track with old-time dancing, children's activities and biodynamically grown food at cost price.

A week before the party was due to start, the Danish Building Agency, which managed Skeppsholmen's lawns, requested an advance payment of SEK 50,000 for the possible restoration of destroyed lawns. This amount the organizers could not pay. The only way out was to move the party to Gärdet at the last moment, hence the classic underline on the poster already printed at the time. The organisers quickly sought permission for Gärdet but it was rejected on the grounds that there would not be enough parking spaces and toilets, that it was thought there would be problems with the order and the free-range sheep would be disturbed.

On the morning of June 12, 1970, the activists began carrying construction materials to the stage from the nearby Konstfack to a place in the middle of Gärdet. Träå Grass och Stenar made their musical equipment available to all musicians and producer Solveig Bark from Rikskonserter had previously decided to support the party with SEK 7,000, among other things, for the rental of a gasoline-powered electric power unit that was responsible for the electricity supply during the party.
After two patient and correct policemen showed up and declared that the party did not have a permit and was thus illegal, they brought up names of some of the activists and then drove off in their police car.
Then Festen began and many believe that it was here that the alternative music movement was born.
Artists who performed included Atlantic Ocean, Atlas, Diddlers, Dom Filthy Dogs, Gläns over Lake and Beach, Gudibrallan, Guineas, Gunder Hegg, Chopped and Minced, Love Explosion, Maces spring, Music is happening, November, Opus 3, Roland von Malmborg, Beard Battle, The Sun Shines, Quick Relief, Trees, Grass and Stones, Yoshio Nakajima.

The poster's image collage was made by Thomas Mera Gartz, drummer in Trees, Grass and Stones and Peter Zander who completed the poster and helped to get the poster into print.
The violin player is Omas Ludvig Larsson born 1887 in Vörderås. Picture taken by Karl Lärka in 1919 in Transtrand. The photo collage also includes Lars Hillersberg, Thomas Tidholm, Mats G. Bengtsson, Trees, Grass and Stones and others.