DJTees Blog — Rock Festivals

Held on Sat Jun 28, 1969, in the centre of Bath, at the Pavilion Recreation Ground, this was pretty much a gathering of the cream of the British blues rock boom.  It was promoter Freddie Bannister’s first UK rock festival. He’d go on to put on the Knebworth Festivals as well as the better known and much bigger 1970 Bath festival at Shepton Mallet. Cleverly, they put up two stages to make sure the music kept flowing. I say stages, they were more like wee wooden sheds with a canopy over. Nothing highlights the difference between these modest early shows...

Sound Storm was Wisconsin's first outdoor rock festival. It was held April 24-26, 1970, on the hillside farm of Irene York, outside the village of Poynette in Columbia County. That sounds a long way from anywhere and quite close to nowhere. The dude - and there's always a dude - behind Sound Storm was Pete Obranovich, better known at the time as Pete Bobo (of course he was), and his friends Sandy Nelson and Bob Pulling. Using the name Golden Freak Enterprises (was there ever a more counterculture company name than that?), Pete raised capital, signed three dozen bands, licensed...

This was held at Family Park in the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, 344 Tully Road, San Jose, California, on May 18–19, 1968. This was the first of two festivals here promoted by a dude called Bob Blodgett. I discussed the 1969 show here It got caught up with a lot of local politics and heavy vibes, with a competing show elsewhere in town. But a year earlier, things were not necessarily any smoother.  The festival featured Country Joe and the Fish, The Animals, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Big Brother and the Holding Company feat. Janis Joplin, The Youngbloods, The Electric...

There were 2 Miami Pop Festivals in 1968 held at Gulfstream Park, a racetrack in Hallandale, just north of Miami. This was the first one held May 18–19 and was promoted by Richard O'Barry and Michael Lang, yes, the Michael Lang who would go down in history as the hip, curly-haired, motorbike and horse riding Woodstock guy. Bands featured at the festival included The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Mothers of Invention, Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. It's not a massive line-up, but all solid festival performers. You have to wonder what...

Ike and Tina Turner headlined a controversial rock concert at Bosse Field football stadium on Sunday, July 2, 1972. Organised by Bob Alexander and Tom Duncan, they assembled a superb bill for this one-day festival. Black Oak Arkansas, Cactus, Country Joe & The Fish, Country Joe McDonald, Dr. John the Night Tripper, Edgar Winter, Howlin' Wolf, Ike & Tina Turner, John Lee Hooker, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Spirit Ike & Tina were the headliners but rain delayed the start of the 12-hour gig but it failed to dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm. The area in front of the stage,...

Have you heard of the Ozark Music Festival held in 1974 at Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri? Unless you're local to the area, probably not. Other, less well-attended festivals have had more prominence in rock culture and history but this three day gig attracted up to 350,000 people and is commonly agreed to being one of the most messed-up, drugged-out and downright debauched festivals in rock history. In fact, if you've read many of my blogs on festivals, you'll know that the locals of whatever small town nearby always wants the festival to be banned because they fear hippies...

This was an interesting one-off series of 3 one-dayers held across the summer under the Beggars Banquet title. There are few reports of the gigs but I thought they were worth mentioning in case someone can give me some more info about them.  The first show was on Saturday, June 26, 1971 the line-up featured Alice Cooper, Bloodrock, Bread, Chilliwack, Lighthouse, Steppenwolf, The Beach Boys The second show Sunday, July 18, 1971 featured Black Sabbath, Humble Pie, The Grease Band, Three Dog Night, Yes. The final show was Saturday, August 21, 1971 was  Edgar Winter’s White Trash, Lee Michaels, Seatrain,...

"Get in your car, brother, and get down with the people in Cincinnati. A gathering of the people. Celebrate the beginning rites of Summer with the spirits of the Sun, Sky, and Stars." This was the press release for the Cincinnati Pop Festival, June 1970. Apparently, brother was invited to party, but sister wasn't. Funny how these people thought of themselves as progressive but forgot to include 52% of their audience. A flyer advertising the event just compounded the sexist attitude by saying 'Bring blankets, pillows, watermelon, incense, ozone rice, your old lady, babies, and other assorted goodies and do...

Held on Sunday, September 14th 1969 just four weeks after Woodstock, Toledo’s hippies ‘n’ hairies got an opportunity to let their freak flag fly at this one day festival at Raceway Park. It was very much a Michigan-biased line-up of bands, many of whom seemed to play every festival in the rust belt for about 3 years! Alice Cooper, Life, MC5, Rush, Savage Grace, SRC, The Amboy Dukes, The Frost, The Früt, The Pleasure Seekers, The Rationals, The Turtles The Turtles topping the bill was an interesting choice. They had hit singles and could’ve been sure to pull some fans...

The Strawberry Fields Festival was held at Mosport Park Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, about 70 miles east of Toronto, between August 7 and the early morning hours of August 10, 1970. Although accounts vary, the audience has been estimated at between 75,000 and 100,000 people paying $15 for a 3-day ticket Initially, the promoters put forward plans to host a festival in Moncton, New Brunswick, named the Strawberry Fields Festival. As was the norm in 1970, local politicians intervened and revoked various permits. We don't want no freaks here, baby. That seemed to be the message. But freaks always...

There were two festivals in Essen at the Gruga Halle in 1969 and 1970. This first one was an important one, especially in West Germany where it was one of the first really big three-day shows. And if you look at the bill, you can see just what an amazing collection of bands was booked to play. Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation, Champion Jack Dupree, Deep Purple, Fleetwood Mac, Free, Keef Hartley, Muddy Waters, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Taste, The Nice, The Pretty Things, Yes, Spooky Tooth, Warm Dust (terrible band name) Steamhammer, Hardin & York, Amon Duul II, Alexis Korner, The...

This was a significant early one-day rock show, taking place on Fri Dec 06, 1968 at what became the legendary venue, Spectrum, 3601 S Broad St, Philadelphia Pennsylvania 19148. It was put on by a company called Electric Factory.Electric Factory Concerts was and indeed still is a Philadelphia-based concert promotion firm, affiliated with the former Electric Factory venue in the city. This was an important gig venue because there was no such place in Philly for rock gigs until they set it up. It was founded by Herbert Spivak, who ran the business with his brothers Jerry and Allen. They...

This was one of the first major European festivals and it had a brilliant 5-day line up of acts. Yes, it was called Europe’s Woodstock!  It was organized by the French label Byg Actuel and sponsored by Actuel, the flagship magazine of underground culture which was owned by Byg. The festival took place in the village of Amougies , Belgium, from October 24-28 , 1969 The Actuel Music Festival of Jazz, Rock and New Music was originally planned to take place at Paris' Les Halles. It would have been the first festival of its kind in Paris, and all advance...

Held at Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds on Lake Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Sunday Jun 08, 1969, this was one of many Michigan one-day festivals, held all over the state from 1968-1972.  A lot of these gigs featured the same roster of bands, all of whom were just getting off the ground. The line-up here was All The Lonely People, Brownsville Station, Plain Brown Wrapper, Savage Grace, Smoke, The Frost, The Rationals, The Red, White and Blues Band, Bob Seger System Obviously, the most famous band to emerge from this scene was Bob Seger, who just wouldn’t quit and eventually made...