50th Anniversary Hoffman Experience
To take a break from my usual Cannabis related posts, I wanted to look back into the past and recall some memories of my early days as a pot smoker. I have been through many phases in my life and my love of cannabis has been the constant thing I’ve carried with me over the past 25 years or so.
Cannabis culture was there with me on this memorable night around the time of the 50th anniversary of Albert Hoffman's famous bike ride. And it would have played a vital part in helping me recover from a night such as this.
The evening started well. We were going to a party and we visited our dealer to get ourselves an ‘e' or a 'trip'. My friend offered to do his dealers washing up if he would lend us his hire car. A few dirty dishes later and we found ourselves in a brand new white Ford with only a few miles on the clock. It was immaculate. My friend came and collected me and we drove to an illegal rave which was taking place on a travellers site somewhere deep in Norfolk. When we got to the party we dropped acid. I’m showing my age because they were 50th Anniversary Hoffman blotters. They were strong to say the least. It seemed as if everyone at that party had dropped one.
As you walked into what was some sort of warehouse, you were almost kicked in the face by people swinging on a large rope swing that swung right across the main entrance. And you walked a little bit further and it was nothing but strobes, smoke machines and maybe a couple of UV lights.
The party was epic, around the warehouse, the site was largely woodland with these few buildings in the middle, and there were at least a couple of hundred people there.
People were toking everywhere and openly sharing joints with people they had never met - a real friendly atmosphere. Especially in the mint condition white hire car that we arrived in. That had become a ‘sub’ venue in it’s own right, with those in the car sharing in the pulsating techno that stitched the evening together. My friend had left all the car doors open, and was sat in the front passenger seat rolling up while the others talked what sounded like gibberish, for what seemed like hours, but in the context of the trip it was about 5 minutes. Then, all of a sudden, a big guy going by the name of ‘Brownie’ picked up a paving slab and held it above his head in a throwing gesture while running towards the car. My friend and the others in the car were screaming with terror when brownie suddenly swung the slab around and dropped it on the ground and used his booming laugh on the passengers of the car while pointing to the sky with both fists clenched. Not everyone was a peace loving pot smoker on acid it seemed. Everyone in the car had laid an egg and Brownie had gone off somewhere else to snort more coke.
The antics continued on, with the hire car being a favourite place by people wanting to escape the intensity of the warehouse and sit and have a joint. A large block of the time flashed by with us alternating between the warehouse, the trees and the car as the trip plateaued and then all of a sudden I noticed it was daylight. The carnage of the night before had turned into a mellow psychedelic experience with a large number of people all coming down off a strong trip - car seats were prime real estate in come down city.
My friend and I got our wits together the next morning and got in the car and drove it to the nearest garage. We got out and had a proper look in the daylight. There were footprints everywhere. All over the seats,trainer imprints all over the dashboard. Foot prints on the roof, bonnet and boot. And mud everywhere. Including the ventilation grills where people had muddy feed resting on the dashboard. I even seem to remember foot prints on the ceiling of the car - I won’t go into how they must have got there.
With the best will in the world, 2 guys who hadn’t slept for 24 hours, who were putting themselves back together after a strong acid trip were never going to make good the car. We could hardly focus on our own hands when holding them right in front of our faces, let alone do a cleaning job on a car.
So we took the car back to the guy who lent it to us and of course he was so coked up he didn’t even notice what a fucking state the car was in. By then I was tired, so I slunk off and walked home, and then slept for a couple of days.
Those 50th Anniversary Hoffmans were one of the most memorable trips I’ve had, and the venue we took them in ensured a night of epic proportions. It was before the Criminal Justice Bill was introduced and parties like that were common place. But this was no ordinary warehouse party. It was a psychedelic extravaganza on a travellers site with a techno warehouse party as it’s centre piece. The fact 50th Anniversary Hoffman LSD were to be found there made it a life enhancing moment in the lives of most people there. If you consider taking LSD as life enhancing that is.
Good times!
If you like this story let me know and I’ll share some more accounts of my days raving back in the day. I was active on the scene from 1991 and went out raving every weekend for several years. I think like the 1960s, if you can remember a lot about it, you weren’t there, but I think I can describe a few more events I attended in a similar fashion to this one!