Wally is a British English expression referring to a "silly or inept person",[1] which later developed into an umbrella term for "vulnerable individuals".
[2] It is thought to have originated at a pop festival in the late 1960s or early 1970s; many sources suggest the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.
On hearing the name "Wally" being announced many times over a loudspeaker, the crowd took it up as a chant,[1] and random shouts of "Wally" were subsequently heard at rock concerts all over Britain.
[3] It was still being called out at the 1979 Led Zeppelin Knebworth Concerts.
[4] In 1974 a group of new age travellers were encamped near Stonehenge, and to help hinder the process of eviction by the landowners, all gave their name as Wally of Wessex,[5] "Wally being a conveniently anonymous umbrella for vulnerable individuals".