Tim Kidner I chanced upon this on late night UK TV. I'm not really a music festival goer, though I once, for my sins, 'holidayed' in one of those communal chalets at Minehead, quite a long time ago, I have to add. I do love my music though and have seen the essential festival films - Woodstock, Glastonbury etc as well as BBC coverage of others as and when they are shown. What suddenly strikes me about those ones are the jerk who constantly wants to say as much as possible for as long as possible. Even if you like them initially, such commentators soon get right on your nerves.ATP, however is fresh, as the seamlessly and often surreal interwoven images do all the narrating and introducing. Or, the people and bands in those images do - caught by the people who care and who are eager, the fans and festival goers themselves. As such it does have a wonderfully natural 'we were there' ambiance and 'this is what we did'.I get to photograph a few small music festivals each year and the best bits are the peripheral moments, where you muck in and then it's the best part of the year; a holiday. Isn't it great also that whilst Glastonbury has miles of security 'wall' and with headlining stars flying in by helicopter and pushing off an hour after their slot, ATP's philosophy seems to be of the original concept of one big 'jam', with no sponsors.Despite all footage reportedly from amateur sources the whole film and its visuals are rich in variety and quality. Hypnotically gorgeous, actually. The sound tends to be thin and scrawny but isn't bad and can be compensated for on one's hifi amp. I won't add anything clichéd and trite about how great it for a cult music festival in keeping it 'real'. I don't go to enough or know enough on the subject to qualify to make judgement but I rate this highly and loved almost all of it. Portishead, especially.

Niklas Pivic I've blogged about it in its entirety here: http://niklasblog.com/? p=5074It's directed by Jonathan Caouette and the festival-goers, most of which contributed film and stills when ATP asked for it, mostly for this documentary. It's notably also shot by Vincent Moon, who's done a lot of Take Away Shows, where he's filmed quasi-famous bands performing their songs (mostly acoustic sets) on the streets.600 hours of footage that was compiled from fans was edited by Nick Fenton and comprises this collage from 200 contributors. It's surprisingly coherent.After-show delights from fans (including a girl trying to climb a cottage and failing) and artists (who are fans, of course), people arriving to the resort, history, gigs, snippets of Patti Smith, Sun Ra, Iggy Pop and others from different eras explaining how they feel about music are included, as well as the place in itself. It's a magical place that makes Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" feel like a commercial trick. The people. The people! The after-shows, the gigs outside people's chalets, the cheap, bad wine from the shop in the center of it all, Lightning Bolt blowing a speaker, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs walking around everywhere, Daniel Johnston sitting in a garden with loads of people hearing him sing and play an acoustic guitar, the sun shining in as the bloody seagulls squawk you awake and as you wake up you push the curtains – with the ugliest print you've ever seen – away from the window to see people returning home from a late late night that never really ends. Not until you leave. But the place sticks, and it's been a part of my heart ever since and it'll never leave, because it's just that beautiful. It's the wind moaning in your ears as you realise it's not the wind, it's the fact that you've just left a small chalet where Scott sits with a laser device, people from The National walk along and you hear bands in the background. Bands? What bands? You don't care, because it's all like one big party where nobody's headlining. It's just music, to paraphrase a guy – who looked a lot like Jerry Garcia – in the documentary. From another time, another age.I suddenly feel like Hunter S. Thompson at the end of the film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", where he talks and writes of the American election and how it becomes America. The documentary is a part of the experience as much as a piece of the puzzle, and to me it's the bottle that says "drink me". Drink it! And then go to Minehead. You will be a better person for it. Trust me. There is no ego in this. There are no competitions. There's bingo in the early mornings, places to hang out with friends you don't know yet and the best feeling I've ever experienced with them, like you're all weirdly connected through more than music. I love it.

aubenbarek For a film almost entirely composed of amateur footage, sent in by fans, this is certainly one of the best looking, best sounding rock documentaries I've seen for a very long time.This girl Krissie Nicolson summed it up pretty well: "We get performances from the festival goers and artists on film, camcorder, Super 8 and mobile phones. Some of it is hilarious, some of it's inspiring - and all of it is entertaining in some way. I think this film instructional. It should be shown at schools as part of the national curriculum to excite free and independent thinking. After all, this country needs the agitators more now than ever."

Rob-O-Cop I was expecting to see a film of rock footage and quirky asides as you might think a movie on the legendary alternative music festival ATP would yield. What we got is something a whole lot more than that and all the better for it.For a film on rock concerts there was surprisingly little straight full song concert footage. What we got instead was insight into the motivation and vibe of the festival, and how this sits along side general music trends and more importantly what that means in a wider context.ATP is a welcome slight on the rock star myth. Instead we see real people connecting with real emotions and expressing it through real music, and the audience who actually heard that expression and the effect it had on them.There's more music around us than ever, it's on all the time, but how many of us actually listen.That said there is some spectacular live footage and some stunning sound, but more than that Jonathan Caouette has edited the miles of footage into a message, a thought provoking and relevant message, and that is why this film succeeds above the just another rock concert movie option, which would have been quite entertaining in itself.