Aquarius Festival

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The Aquarius Festival was a music and cultural festival organised by the Australian Union of Students and sponsored by Peter Stuyvesant. The first one was held in Canberra in 1971, ^[1] while the second, and last, was held in Nimbin, New South Wales in 1973.^[2] The event had a permanent effect on the economy of Nimbin, as many Festival participants decided to remain in the district which was previously a dairying and banana growing region in severe decline. Some of those that stayed might self-describe as "hippies", but the larger mass came from all sorts of backgrounds and life experience, ranging from 18 to 80, and would resent that label.

One group pooled resources after the Nimbin Aquarius Festival and bought a then 1200 acre property at Tuntable Falls in the next valley east, below Mt Nardi, and formed a community called the "Co-Ordination Co-Operative". Other groups followed suit.

While "Multiple Occupancy" was basically a cheap housing alternative, there were some self-described spiritual communities that shared particular values, like Bhodi Farm and Darmananda, but they tended to be closer to the neighbouring Channon and Terania Creek than Nimbin.

Mullumbimby and Byron Bay attracted more of the moneyed "New Age" people, while Nimbin attracted impecunious wanderers and back-packers.

Within a decade the "Aquarians" were outnumbered by the continuing flow of disaffected urbanites and tree-changers coming into the area.