In August 2021, Starscream attended the opening of The 1971 Reading Festival: For The First Time – an exhibition celebrating 50 years of the iconic music festival, showcasing stories, posters and unseen photography from the very first Reading Festival that took place in 1971.
Taking place at Reading Museum, the exhibition marks the festival’s 50th anniversary with accounts of the first Reading Festival weekend (tickets cost just £2), the challenges of putting it on, the artists and music fans who attended, and reflects upon its enduring legacy today.
The exhibition features photography curated by legendary rock photographer Jill Furmanovsky and her team at Rockarchive, who conducted exhaustive research to bring lost and hidden imagery of the first festival to light. There are photographs of musicians who played over the three-day weekend, which included Genesis, Sha Na Na, Rory Gallagher, Colossseum, Van Der Graaf Generator and more.
Also on show are original news clippings, posters, unique rock memorabilia – including headliner Rory Gallagher’s 1966 Fender Telecaster and VOX AC30 amplifier that he used on the day. There’s also a recreation of festival founder Harold Pendleton’s Marquee Club stage in London, and even original bottles of Reading Festival Ale from local brewery Courage.
The exhibition was featured on UK’s ITV News ahead of 2021’s Reading Festival weekend: https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2021-08-25/exhibition-celebrating-50-years-of-reading-festival-opens
The The 1971 Reading Festival: For The First Time exhibition is free and open to the public until 29 January 2022.
For more information on the exhibition, visit: https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/1971-reading-festival-for-first-time
For more information on Rock Archive, visit: https://www.rockarchive.com/
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