GLASTONBURY ticketholders can party like it’s 1987 this week with the return of a monumental art installation at William's Green.
The Carhenge sculpture contains 24 vintage vehicles and emulates Stonehenge, the iconic prehistoric monument on the Salisbury Plane in Wiltshire.
Underground artist Joe Rush built his first version of Carhenge at Worthy Farm 36 years ago after being stopped from entering a free festival at Stonehenge.
Now, a new and “complete” version of Carhenge has been built ahead of this year's festival, which gets underway tomorrow (Wednesday).
“Carhenge revisits an idea that originated at the 1987 festival,” a Glastonbury spokesperson said.
“When Joe Rush and the Mutoid Waste Company were stopped from visiting the free festival at Stonehenge, they came to Glastonbury and built their own from scrap cars, starting a three-day 24-hour party at their henge.
“Carhenge is tribute to the pillars of Counterculture and the free festival movement, the heroines and heroes from the margins of society, the non-conformists, punks, and visionaries whose courage and energy has shaped our culture from the underground out.”
The sculpture has been dedicated to The Naked Civil Servant author Quentin Crisp, rock n' roll guitarist Chuck Berry, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and sax player Nick Turner, who have all passed away this year.
Rush said: “This is the version we always dreamed of building, the complete henge.”
Last year, the artist built a 40-foot tall Burning Lotus sculpture at The Park area of the festival, which attendees could place letters into before it was set on fire.
Festival co-organiser Emily Eavis said: “During the festival, people will be encouraged to write down memories and images of people or situations they wish to let go of.
“It may be people who died in the lockdown who were not properly said goodbye to, it may be failed business projects, it may even be failed marriages, but the point is that all of these things will be focused on and then placed inside the lotus.
“At midnight on Sunday, the lotus will be ignited and while the flames roar up, the whole gear-driven inferno will be burnt to nothing and with this, we will be able to let go and get some closure.”
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