The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

festivals I by Sonnet Force Under the Volcano Festival of Art and Social Change A testament to living on the edge " . . . h i d e o u s slash of felled trees, bare, broken, ugly land crossed by dusty roads a n d d o t t e d w i t h n e w ugly houses where only a f e w years a g o rested the beautiful forest they had loved...Progress was the Jerry Williams, "squatter", Mudflats of Really wanted the flats remembers threat of eviction--from a District life on Maplewood The physicality you. we desperate t o c o n s o l i d a t e its t a x b a s e a n d resentful o f families w h o sent their really We Lots who had of rent, we house twoin the children to school without paying grabbed city few called out story when primeval. to be. t a x e s -- c o n t i n u a l l y p l a g u e d this c o m m u n i t y a n d their lifestyle. all this nature, benefits--firewood yet we were floated totally in, no his enemy...Ruination and vulgarization had become the habit." --Malcolm Lowry Eventually, like their predecessors at had electricity. "Old thing Mike", with of driftwood One man, had built about a He Roche Point, the M a p l e w o o d squatter settlement w a s destroyed to make way for suburban development, otherwise Gin and Goldenrod and it was a big around courtyard. half-a-dozen beautiful made the came k n o w n as " p r o g r e s s " . O n e - b y - o n e t h e municipality burned a n d bulldozed the houses d o w n . For a year or s o t h e people o f t h e M u d f l a t s resisted, in t h e f o r m o f non-violent concerts protests such as big T h r o u g h a trail in t h e f o r e s t w a s R o c h e Point, t h e present-day C a t e s Park. W i t h the 1 9 3 0 ' s D e p r e s s i o n , t h e site had outbuildings Italianesque shingles from "Old and the Mike" out many of plywood and in the b e c o m e a squatter settlement, a refuge to unemployed workers a n d families driftwood--driftlumber--that sawmills been was around in the 70 at the 1940's. area. time of and annual counter-culture trying t o survive o n t h e f r i n g e s o f society. N i n e t y s q u a t t e r s ' h o m e s lined t h e f o r e s h o r e . Disliking the provincial mentality f o u n d in V a n c o u v e r city life, they "pleasure faires". may have Lowry a contemporary Malcolm From 1970-72, o n e summer in Cates Park was taken weekend over by Malcolm L o w r y a n d h i s w i f e , h a v i n g a r r i v e d in August drawn of 1940, were immediately at It was kind was spent neighbours...all though. guys of idealistic having was pretty profs on the "mud" UBC and much not broke. and had jobs; had jobs time with perfect of two nice and a were quite Faire. one of thousands of " h i p p i e s " from the lower mainland camper America. a n d others vans Much from like w h o arrived around the in tea and coffee Some t o the forest a n d seashore North R o c h e Point. L o w r y felt they h a d f o u n d a l i f e s t y l e "that We were were Under the years was dying out in the the people families. Volcano Festival to emerge twenty world" (Selected Letters). later, t h e s e festivals w e r e o r g a n i z e d by p e o p l e m a k i n g a c h o i c e t o live o u t s i d e the dominant social structure. The I did odd labouring builders and craftsy. and music the Mission Malcolm famous Lowry resident best became of the known the for most writing lot of us were very artsy a few craft which was and many We put on festivals, Pleasure squatter Mission Pleasure Faire, Faire Country offered Faire, crowds community, a n d Renaissance Under which shack, the Volcano and after ( p u b l i s h e d in 1 9 4 6 ) , in his 3 - r o o m death would his a w i d e variety of h a n d - m a d e objects-- was completed All felt it to be a very magical place. jewelry, b e a d w o r k , l e a t h e r w o r k , pottery and other visual art. Moreover, a day of the become 20 considered o n e of the finest In 1 9 7 0 J e r r y W i l l i a m s a n d h i s f a m i l y joined the M a p l e w o o d M u d f l a t s squatter community of unemployed workers, y o u n g artists a n d visionary hippies w h o practiced sustainable living by f o r a g i n g , recycling nature. and living surrounded the by "faires" minstrel provided music, people E n g l i s h - l a n g u a g e b o o k s w r i t t e n in t h e t h songs, dancing, and Century. Lowry's concern for the p a r t i c i p a t i n g i n t h e spirit o f t h e o c c a s i o n , free o f a n y c o m m e r c i a l i s m o r constraint. f r a g i l e e c o l o g y o f B u r r a r d Inlet, a n d t h e impact unlimited development was having, w o u l d , j u s t t w e l v e y e a r s later, b e s h a r e d by a different g r o u p of nearby squatters. These cultural productions were also Unfortunately, constant part of a n artistic m o v e m e n t that w a s July I August