trailer trash

And so the festival season has descended upon us, have you got your tickets? If not, enter into the spirit with these titles.

The hills are alive with the sound of Glastonbury...

Glastonbury is a music documentary or a ‘Rockumentary’ about ….you’ve guessed it, the Glastonbury music festival. Directed by Julien Temple, the film was released to mark the event’s 30th anniversary, and also to fill the void when the festival took a well deserved break back in 2006.

Although the film is conventional in presentation, it doesn’t feature a chronological structure. The result is more like a home video montage than a two hour feature-length film.Temple splices together grainy archival footage with crisp images from recent years. There’s a loose commentary by farmer and festival organiser-extraordinaire Michael Eavis, who discusses the festival’s beginnings of free love to its current status as a heavily sponsored multi-million pound music extravaganza. Eavis’ commentary doesn’t romanticise the festival - instead, he recalls riots, waste, robbery, fence dodgers and…  …lots of excrement. There’s also some fascinating footage of flower-girl Arabella Churchill, granddaughter of Winston, who was a key supporter and organiser of the festival.

Visuals are beautifully combined with the aural, and snippets of performances by Bjork, The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground and Tangerine Dream create a patchwork quilt of music nostalgia.

The 2009 documentary Dust & Illusions presents a more intellectually rigorous look into the ceremonial festival tradition. 30 years on, the film explores the evolution of the Burning Man Festival, which takes place yearly in The Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA.

Ritualistic happenings at Burning Man

The film encompasses Burning Man as a movement, culture, and a slice of zeitgeist. Director Olivier Bonin amalgamates footage that spans the past 20 years, offering access to the seminal figures and footage that have cultivated a movement.

Ultimately, both docs give a sense of place and insight into festivals which the mainstream media rarely labels anything more than places of spectacular or self-indulgence awe.