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One Day Like This - The Music Festival Experience

From the early days of Reading and the Isle of Wight to the massive success of Glastonbury, Stuart Maconie looks at the British love affair with al fresco music.

The British music festival is now as much a summer staple as Wimbledon, the FA Cup or Glorious Goodwood. It's also a rite of passage for any music fan; there's nothing quite like the heady combination of being in a crowd in the great outdoors with waves of music washing over us. No doubt it's a primal human experience hard-wired within us.

The rock festival, like the music itself, has its roots in jazz and blues, namely The Jazz and Blues festival - which started in the early '60s and would in time become better known as the much rockier Reading Festival - and which featured The Who, The Yardbirds, Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac in the mid-Sixties. Then came a festival in Spalding, Lincolnshire, in a cattle auction shed in May '67 featuring Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Move all in one day, for the princely sum of Β£1! The Isle Of Wight started in '68, and there were also festivals in Uxbridge and Bath, before the daddy of them all, Glastonbury, started in 1970. The last Glastonbury, in 2011, sold out its ticket allocation in just four hours, and 18.6 million viewers watched the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's coverage on TV.

Today, there's is a music festival of every stripe, ranging from the full-on Metal festivals like Download or Bloodstock through to those that cater for the arty, Guardian-reading crowd with their literary tents and highbrow headliners, such as Latitude in lovely Southwold, Suffolk. There are festivals in Sidmouth and Cambridge that cover folk music both indigenous and from further afield. And there are cultured and curated festivals like All Tomorrow's Parties and those held in holiday camps catering to families and those less-inclined to sleep in a tent in a field, with the promise of a bed, a hot shower and choice of restaurants.

57 minutes

Last on

Wed 1 Feb 2017 23:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2

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Clips

See all clips from One Day Like This - The Music Festival Experience (4)

Music Played

  • Elbow

    One Day Like This (Live Recording from Glastonbury 2008)

  • Joni Mitchell

    Woodstock

  • The Rolling Stones

    Sympathy For The Devil

  • Osibisa

    Music For Gong Gong

  • Guns N’ Roses

    Welcome To The Jungle

  • Pink Floyd

    See Emily Play

  • Jimi Hendrix

    Purple Haze

  • T. Rex

    Get It On

  • Blur

    The Universal

  • The Orb

    A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraword

  • Garbage

    Only Happy When It Rains

  • Elbow

    One Day Like This (Live Recording from Glastonbury 2008)

  • µώ±π²β΄Η²Τ³¦Γ©

    Irreplaceable

    • B Day.
    • RCA.

Share your comments and stories

Your contributions will play a key part in this episode, take a look at the questions below and :

  • What's your strongest memory from a festival?
  • What advice would you give to someone going to their first festival?
  • Which is your favourite festival and why?
  • Who put on the best show you've ever seen at a festival?

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Broadcasts

  • Wed 16 Oct 2013 22:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2
  • Wed 1 Feb 2017 23:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2

Song Profiles

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