Everything looks better in black and white,” Paul Simon once mused (depending on which version of the song “Kodachrome” you listen to). The music legend had a point — life tends to look better through a monochromatic filter, one that subtly hides the world’s flaws and accentuates its beauty. The many shades of gray can turn even the most mundane of memories into stunning portraits, making a simple Sunday in the park look like a still from a retro film set.
Such is the case, we learned, with music festival photography of yore. Dive into the photographic archives of Woodstock and Newport Jazz Festival, and you’ll find image after image of ecstatic fandom frozen in time. From men in suits fawning over bands of the 1960s to hippies in headgear losing their minds to jam bands in the 1970s, the layers of black and white film transform what might have been a crowded, odorous weekend of debauchery and heat exhaustion into an Eden-like experience.
Go ahead, ogle these photos and remember why you do love music festivals.
- 1956 — Newport Jazz Festival (Newport, Rhode Island)
 
- 1958 — Newport Jazz Festival (Newport, Rhode Island)
 
- 1964 — Newport Folk Festival (Newport, Rhode Island)
 
- 1967 — Monterey International Pop Music Festival (Monterey, California)
 
- 1977 — Newport Folk Festival (Newport, Rhode Island)
- 1995 — New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (New Orleans, Louisiana)
– By Navmeen Khot
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