Abstract
This chapter takes a close look at primary sources relating to festival cultures in the early 1970s, when many hippy and counter-cultural activists were appalled by mass pop festivals like the Isle of Wight festival of 1970. Taking such events as anti-models, they developed a different vision of the pop festival, stressing such themes as the presence of different medias, the participation of the festival-goers and the rootedness of the festival site. Such ideals inspired a series of free festivals, including the Windsor festivals (1972, 1973 and 1974) and the first Glastonbury festivals. This chapter draws on interviews with free festival-goers and other first-hand accounts.
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Notes
- 1.
In this paper I will not distinguish between pop and rock festivals.
- 2.
Here, a qualification. Joe Boyd isn’t actually identified as the speaker of these words in the voiceover for this section of Gamond’s film. But the voice certainly sounds like his.
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Gemie, S. (2022). The Case for a Free Festival (1969–1974) Hippy Culture and Pop Festivals. In: Nita, M., Kidwell, J.H. (eds) Festival Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88392-8_3
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