In this essay, Jon Urzelai Urbieta analyses the role of music festivals in the Basque Country, from mid 20th century onwards, both from global and local perspectives, travelling from the caves of Mairuelegorreta and the replicas of Woodstock to the fields of Kobetamendi and Irisarri.

Urzelai has explored the development of the post-war consumer society, the fascination of transgression, the invention of youth, folklorization, gentrification, the urbanism that seeks to devour the urban, and so on. Walden, Martxa eta Borroka, Guggenheim. Be basque and the simulacra of normality. "We´re building a brand, not a nation" he warns. However, he also visualizes where the contemporary collective spirit lays, where tradition is being renewed, where the community reimagines itself. Since everything is not burnt yet.