What were the differences? What were the similarities? What sort of bands were they watching? And, most importantly, what were the toilets like? Here are some brilliant archive photos of festivals from the1960s through to the 1980s.
Fans arrive at the Isle Of Wight for the 1970 "Pop Festival". They're looking forward to seeing The Who, Jimi Hendrix and the final UK performance of The Doors with Jim Morrison.
Festival goers start to arrive for a lo-fi-looking Reading Festival in August 1980. They were there to see Iron Maiden, Whitesnake, Def Leppard and more.
Reading Festival 40 years ago.
Picture:
Reading Post/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
Toilets at the Isle Of Wight Festival, 1970. Good luck if you get the "cubicle" at the end.
If you lost your mates in 1976, how did you get in touch with them in the pre-mobile era? Leave a message on the message wall, of course! And then hope for the best.
There was one other option in those pre-mobile days.
Festival-goers queuing up to make phone calls outside a red telephone box on the Isle of Wight while attending the Isle of Wight Festival, UK, 26th-31st August 1970.
Picture:
Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Using the amenities at Glastonbury Festival, 1971. These lucky festival goers could have been watching David Bowie's first Glasto performance the next day.
Roger Daltrey "copters in" to play The Who's headline set at the Isle Of Wight festival in August 1969. The band aired their rock opera Tommy that night.
Reading Festival grew out of the National Jazz Festival in Richmond in the early 60s. By the start of the next decade, the event had moved to Reading and adopted a crowd that favoured heavy rock. This is the view from the stage in 1973, when Status Quo and Genesis played.
British festivals always had connections with the counter-culture. In 1981, Glastonbury joined forces with CND - the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament, which protested against the arms race.
Last of the festival goers sitting among the mud and the rubbish as workmen clear up the mess at the end of Reading Festival. 26th June 1971.
Picture:
Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)