# What is the best music festival documentary of all time?

> Mud, headliners and the occasional disaster: the festival film is its own small genre. Pick the one that captured its crowd best.

*By YPB Team · Published October 16, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-music-festival-documentary-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Festival** — score 1000/1000
   Murray Lerner's 1967 documentary on the Newport Folk Festival, featuring Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.
2. **Message to Love** — score 999/1000
   Murray Lerner's film of the chaotic 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.
3. **Woodstock** — score 912/1000
   Michael Wadleigh's 1970 Oscar-winning film of the 1969 festival and its three days of peace and music.
4. **Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert** — score 879/1000
   A 2020 look at two decades of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
5. **Summer of Soul** — score 879/1000
   Questlove's 2021 film unearthing footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.
6. **Monterey Pop** — score 684/1000
   D.A. Pennebaker's 1968 film of the 1967 Monterey festival, with landmark performances by Hendrix, Otis Redding and Janis Joplin.
7. **Fyre Fraud** — score 684/1000
   Hulu's 2019 competing documentary on the Fyre Festival disaster and its founder.
8. **Festival Express** — score 684/1000
   A 2003 documentary on the 1970 train tour carrying the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and The Band across Canada.
9. **Homecoming** — score 684/1000
   Beyoncé's 2019 film of her 2018 Coachella headline set and the rehearsals behind it.
10. **Jazz on a Summer's Day** — score 560/1000
   Bert Stern's 1959 film of the Newport Jazz Festival, shot in vivid colour.
11. **Trainwreck: Woodstock '99** — score 560/1000
   Netflix's 2022 docuseries on the infamous 1999 festival.
12. **Fyre** — score 560/1000
   Netflix's 2019 documentary on the collapse of the luxury Fyre Festival in the Bahamas.
13. **Glastonbury** — score 410/1000
   Julien Temple's 2006 patchwork film on the history of the Glastonbury Festival.
14. **Glastonbury Fayre** — score 410/1000
   The 1972 film of the early Glastonbury festival, made with its founder Michael Eavis in the audience.
15. **Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage** — score 410/1000
   HBO's 2021 documentary on the violence and chaos at the 1999 Woodstock anniversary festival.
16. **Wattstax** — score 0/1000
   The 1973 film of the Stax Records benefit concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots.

Tags: movies, music, festivals, documentaries, woodstock