You Instead may be one of the few romantic comedies to be filmed at a music festival (T In The Park to be precise), but it’s not the first flick to spend a lost weekend in a field. Glen Ferris checks out some of the very best.
Glastonbury The Movie
Actually the second film to be made about England’s almost annual mud and music fest (after 1971’s trippy Nic Roeg doc Glastonbury Fayre – fact fans), Glastonbury The Movie is a particularly notable entry into this line-up because it time capsules the festival just before it got all corporate and lost its meaning, man. Shot at the 1993 shindig and featuring the likes of The Lemonheads, Spiritualized, The Orb and Porno For Pyros, it harks back to a happier-clappier time long before sponsorship and BBC Three coverage darkened its skies.
Taking Woodstock
Ang Lee’s based-on-fact film tells the story of how a family on the edge of losing their dilapidated motel accidentally provided the setting for the most legendary music festival of all time. Having obtained a live-music permit for the princely sum of $1 after hearing the planned original venue for the Woodstock Festival was opposed, they went onto convince a local farmer to rent out a few of his fields and the free-love freak-out was born. See what happens when you give peace a chance?
Tamara Drewe
The fictitious village of Ewedown in Stephen Frears’ marvelous reworking of Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd once a year plays host to a raucous music festival - not unlike the usually quiet town of Glastonbury. The stars of the show this time around are the soon-to-be-defunct Swipe, who, led by sparky drummer Ben Sergeant (Dominic Cooper), go their separate ways after one inter-band relationship too many. Fortunately for Ben, his obvious rebound comes in the shapely shape of the lovely Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) – Gallagher brothers take note, this is how it’s done.
Gimme Shelter
For an example of how the very best intentions can go horribly wrong, look at this documentary about the Rolling Stones’ infamous 1969 Altamont Speedway concert. It was intended to be a free gig celebrating peace and love among the masses but it soon descended into chaos after spiraling numbers attended the relatively small event, the Hell’s Angels were ill-advisedly called into to provide security, mass violence erupted and a young spectator was fatally stabbed. Needless to say, questions were raised, the Stones were vilified and gig organizers thought twice about using motorcycle gangs as bouncers again.
Wayne’s World 2
When the ghost of Jim Morrison and a weird naked Native American appear to you in a dream and tell you that your destiny is to organise a big concert, you should probably get planning. After all, that’s what happened to Mike Myers’ Wayne Campbell and his best mate Garth Algar (Dana Carvey), and their vision resulted in the epoch defining Waynestock – a festival that saw the likes of Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, Van Halen and the Gin Blossoms ripping it up big time. If you build it, it appears they really will come.
The Sound Of Music
What the pre-World War II Salzburg Music Festival lacked in sex, mud and rock ’n’ roll, it more than made up for in singing nuns, cute children and Nazis. Okay, it wasn’t your typical headbanging fest, but in terms of sticking two fingers up to the man, the Von Trapp’s performance of So Long, Farewell to the Third Reich and subsequent escape to Switzerland was far more anti-establishment than your average headliner on the Pyramid stage.
Check out the You Instead trailer here...
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