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Cineramageddon: what is the new Glastonbury attraction Michael Eavis is calling 'the biggest thing of the year' - and how can you book tickets?
As if the dizzying array of music acts gracing Glastonbury isn't enough, this year's event will also have its own five-day, drive-in cinema attraction, curated by venerable director Julien Temple and designed by artist Joe Rush.
Situated to the west of the Park Stage, Cineramageddon will feature the biggest cinema screen in Britain and punters will be able to watch movies projected on to it while sat in any of 50 mutated vintage American and British cars, repurposed funfair rides and a Learjet.
Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis told NME: "We’ve put them all in straight lines, so you can sit in the cars, watch the films, and the sound comes into the cars by a little Bluetooth thingy on the wing mirror... This is the biggest thing of the year."
Among the classic films selected by Temple – who directed the 2006 documentary Glastonbury – are Withnail & I and Apocalypse Now; festivalgoers are advised to book their tickets in advance.
Alongside the nocturnal Cineramageddon arena, the Black Lamp Cinema – a 500-capacity daytime tent – will be screening a selection of recent films, including The Handmaiden, often followed by Q&As with the directors and cast.
What's Johnny Depp doing there?
Bizarre, but true: the Hollywood A-lister has taken time out from being a pirate of the Caribbean to curate Thursday night's line-up. He will be introducing the films, two of which he stars in – Dead Man and The Libertine – as well as discuss them with Temple.
Here's our pick of what to watch at Cineramageddon
Glastonbury (15) – Wednesday
Opening the five-day event is Temple's heroic 2006 documentary edited down from 30 years of festival footage. It's charming and quintessentially British, and anyone not stirred by footage of David Bowie performing Heroes during his 2000 headline slot should consult their GP immediately.
Withnail & I (15) – Thursday
Once a cult film, now a bona fide classic, this British tragicomedy really needs no introduction. Withnail and "I" (Richard E Grant and Paul McGann) are louche, hard-drinking, unemployed actors who, sick of living in squalor in Sixties Camden, decide to take a holiday in the Lake District. The lines, from Bruce Robinson's semi-autobiographical script, are uproariously funny. Imagine hundreds of drunk revellers at Glastonbury quoting in unison: "We want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!"
American Graffiti (12) – Friday
Before he made Star Wars, George Lucas was challenged by Francis Ford Coppola to write a film that would appeal to all audiences. The result was this masterful coming-of-age film, based on Lucas's own teenage experiences. Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) and Steve (Ron Howard) are childhood friends who find they must confront some realities about adult life as they cruise the streets of California in the Sixties. Fun fact: a young Harrison Ford was arrested for participating in a bar-fight during the filming.
Dazed and Confused (12) – Saturday
A spiritual successor to American Graffiti, Richard Linklater's love letter to his high-school days sees a group of teenagers run wild on the last day of term to the strains of ZZ Top, Aerosmith and Black Sabbath. With dialogue that flows as naturally as day passing into night, this is a sharp, seductive and hilariously quotable snapshot of suburban teen culture in 1976. Altogether now: "All right, all right, all riiiiight!"
Apocalypse Now (18) – Sunday
Helicopters swoop to the sound of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries; soldiers dance around on acid; a cowboy-colonel declares his love for napalm ("It smells like… victory"). Coppola's poetic and, frankly, thrilling depiction of the madness of modern warfare tells the story of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), a soldier sent to Cambodia to kill a crazed American colonel (Marlon Brando).
