From Woodstock to Glastonbury to the Isle of Wight: The Role of Festival Films in the Construction of the Countercultural Carnivalesque. Issue 2 (14th March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Anderton, Chris
• Is Part Of: Popular music and society. Volume 43:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 201
• Page End: 215
• Publication Date: 2020-03-14
• Subjects: Carnivalesque -- counterculture -- film -- Glastonbury -- Isle of wight festival -- music festival; Popular music -- Periodicals; Music -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 782.42164
• DOI: 10.1080/03007766.2019.1687670
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0300-7766

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines the narrative construction of two British music festival films, Message to Love: the Isle of Wight Festival (1995) and Glastonbury Fayre (1972): films which demonstrate narratives and techniques familiar from Woodstock – Three Days of Peace and Music (1970). I argue that these films, which portray the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival and the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre, have helped to construct and reinforce what I refer to as the "countercultural carnivalesque" – a way of thinking about festival culture that is informed by a particular understanding of the youth counterculture of the late-1960s.