What is PUNKFEST all about?

On November 18, 1982 at 12.35 a.m, a 22 year old punk anarchist, walked up to the entrance of the building which housed the Wanganui police computer. Two security guards in the building saw Neil approach with a carry bag on his shoulder. As the guard reached to activate a remote speaker in the foyer and ask him what he wanted, Neil bent over and there was a flash and a huge explosion. The blast could be felt for miles, and buildings were rocked up to 400 metres away.

Neil Roberts, is the anarchist punk rocker who attempted to blow up the Wanganui Computer Centre and lost his life in doing so on 18 November, 1982. Roberts, the son of a wealthy Auckland family, was a popular and respected figure in the early punk scene playing in several bands. Far from being a "mad bomber" he was a peaceful and non-violent person driven to his final act by what he saw as the inevitable "police state" with the Computer Centre as it's figurehead. Remember, the atmosphere was vastly different in New Zealand in those days; a relatively conservative country in the grips of Muldoonism and its "Think Big" policies, suffering a crippling economic depression. We had just witnessed unprecedented displays of police brutality and violence during the Springbok Tour of 1981.

All this was going down at the height of the Cold War with Russia and the ever present threat of nuclear war and Orwell's "1984" was just around the corner. Neil Roberts died for his beliefs and his final words graffitied on a concrete wall opposite the Computer Centre were also to be his epitaph, as relevant today as back in 1982 "We have maintained a silence closely resembling stupidity".