Summer Solstice
In contemporary popular culture
By now a powerful and instantly recognisable symbol, the monument was featured in a wide number of ways. The Beatles are seen performing on Salisbury Plain with Stonehenge visible in the background in their 1965 film Help!. The site has also been used for concerts, starting with the Stonehenge Free Festival in 1972. Perhaps in recognition of the site’s link to popular music, the mockumentary film This is Spinal Tap featured the titular fictional rock band band performing a song named “Stonehenge” on stage. In one of the many embarrassing events on their comeback tour, confusion about abbreviating inches and feet results in a Stonehenge replica so small that it was in danger of being trod upon by the Little People hired to dance around it.
- The 1984 Stonehenge Free Festival
The momument continues to be featured in film, television and radio, either to question the origin or history of Stonehenge, or to play upon its position as an instantly recognisable structure and symbol of Britain. In books by Kurt Vonnegut and S. M. Stirling amongst others, alternative theories are suggested and explored as part of the larger plot. The monument has also become popular in computer games, where alternative uses are often posited for Stonehenge, or its iconic nature is explored.
Tags: Summer Solstice