Glastonbury

GLASTONBURY: the legendary burial site of King Arthur, the mystical resting place of the Holy Grail, and home to the world's longest running outdoor music festival. This mesmerizing documentary brings to the screen the beating, thumping, rocking dreamchild of Michael Evans, a young farmer who in 1970 opened his farm to 1,500 people to see a handful of pop and folk musicians all for the price of a pound. Thirty-five years later, over 150,000 music fans converge along the leylines to see acts ranging from The Bravery to Bj̦rk, Morrissey to Radiohead, New Order to Coldplay. The documentary project began in 2002 when it seemed as though the Glastonbury Festival was in trouble. Farmer Evans asked director Julien Temple to assist in creating a visual history of the festival in case of its demise. Luckily for Evans and music lovers from around the world, the festival survived and is now as strong and as popular as ever. This film truly stands in as the festival's unofficial guide to its past, present, and future. Culling from over 700 hours of film and video footage, Temple interweaves an hypnotic array of images and sounds, that leaves the viewer unsure of the time of the event, only the place РGLASTONBURY. -W.F.G.