Find some glow sticks and do your best to evade law enforcement because music festival season has begun! If there’s anything America loves more than actual music festivals, it’s documentaries about music festivals. From the legendary to the disastrous , these special films often serve as time capsules that preserve both the good and bad of an era’s youth culture. But one festival doc reigns supreme and always will: Woodstock.
The festival organizers, who lost considerable amounts of money putting on the festival, didn’t pay much attention to the filmmakers, what with 400,000 people swarming into a small town. Plus it was the 1960s, and restricting access to filmmakers was just, like, not cool, man.
Seeing multiple scenes playing out at once allowed the audience to virtually jump around the festival, keeping just as close an eye on the festival-goers as the performers. Although contemporary music festival docs may feature some attendees here and there, none make them the stars of the show like Woodstock.
Although many festivals today chase the high of Woodstock, it’s impossible for them to recreate what was not just a music festival, but a singular moment in time, a cultural phenomenon. Most festivals today are branded spectacles that primarily celebrate hedonism. One could argue this was also true of the original Woodstock, but Wadleigh’s film certainly doesn’t portray it that way. In fact, many festival documentaries have revolved around the shattered dream of the allegedly idyllic Woodstock.