Description

Never-before-published photographs of the legendary, raucous and record-breaking 1970 music festival often dubbed the Woodstock of England

In August 1970, Hamburg photographer Simone Bergmann traveled to the Isle of Wight off the coast of Great Britain for its annual music festival. The lineup was a music-lover's dream: Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Who, Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, The Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Miles Davis, Kris Kristofferson, Supertramp, Procol Harum, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Chicago all performed among dozens of other acts. An estimated 600,000 to 700,000 people were in attendance. The festival was periodically disrupted by spectators from "Desolation Row," the area immediately behind the double fencing, who demanded that the event have free admission. It was not until the last day that the organizers yielded to the pressure. Bergmann photographed this conflict, while also capturing the unique and--to our eyes--almost anachronistic moment of "public happiness," as Hannah Arendt called it.