DJTees Blog — Rock Festivals

This was a legendary German 2-day show.  Held on Fri Apr 03, 1970 - Sat Apr 04, 1970 at Sporthalle Bergischer Ring 40 Cologne North Rhine-Westphalia 51063 West Germany, this was a very early German show and one of the first highlighting largely British progressive acts, most of which were a year or less old in the Spring of ‘70. Indeed, that’s a remarkable aspect of festival gigs at this time, many names we all became so familiar with, were just starting out. Some bands like J.C. Heavy (great name) were English (from Manchester) but were based in Germany and...

On March 19, 1967, a Trips Festival was held in the Eagles Hall in Seattle. Promoted by the wonderfully named Trips Lansing and managed by Sid Clark, the event was a combination of live music, light shows, and a variety of other sensual experiences in the tradition that had been established at the Longshoreman’s Hall in San Francisco in 1966.  The Seattle Trips Festival began at noon. More than 6,000 attendees paid $3 each to get seriously wide and high. There was a large gold Buddha statue with emerald green eyes towering over the audience in the ballroom, of course...

Held on Boxing Day 26th December 1969 in the famous Cow Palace, in Daly City, California, it was a one-day show but one which showed just how strong and popular the San Francisco/Bay Area counterculture rock scene had become in the previous 18 months, evolving from literally a handful of bands who were not signed to any labels, to a mini-industry in itself, with everyone recording albums and singles.  This show was put on by local radio station KYA 1260. They had organised the San Francisco Pop Festival in late October at the Alameda Fairgrounds. KYA was home to Tom...

This festival was held between Thursday Jul 16, 1970 and Sat Jul 18, 1970. It was a remarkable gig which ended up inspiring one of the era's great southern rock songs.  The bill was headlined by the Allman Brothers Band and also featured Big Brother, Radar, Peace Core, Wet Willie, Johnny Jenkins, Tony Joe White, Hampton Grease Band, Donnydale, Catfish Freedom, Sundown, Chakra, Hot Rain, Kallabash, Warm Stone Blind, Captain John's Fishmarket. Ah yes, the CJF, whatever became of them?   Naturally it became known as “South’s Woodstock” (everyone had their own Woodstock for a year or two) was launched at...

Ohio’s student population was a hotbed of political activism in the late 60s into the early 70s. Fired up by the Kent State killings in 1970 (inspiring CSNY’s ‘Ohio’) the University put on a lot of shows for touring rock bands.  This was a two-day show held on Fri Apr 27, 1973 and Sat Apr 28, 1973 at the Convocation Center in Athens, itself very much a place of alternative living and general left-field faroutedness. The Convo Center was a new circular ‘UFO-style’ building, of which many were built in 1960s and early 70s America. It opened in December 1968...

Held on August 3, 1969, The Mount Clemens Pop Festival was the creation of promoter David Dubay. This event was held at Sportsman’s Park near New Haven, Michigan. This was a full-day event that started at noon and ran through to midnight.  The full line up was: Alice Cooper, Cat Mother, Charlie Latimer, Country Joe & The Fish, Frijid Pink, John Mayall, Mainline, MC5, Muddy Waters, Owen Love, Rush (not the Canuck prog trio), Savage Grace, T-Bone Walker, Ted Lucas, The All Night Newsboys, The Attack, The McCoys, The Pleasure Seekers, The Red, White and Blues Band, The Stooges, The...

This one can be filed in the ‘great festivals that never happened’ drawer. Promised on the posters to be a bucolic-sounding "6 Days of Harmony, Music, Workshops & Symposiums, Camp Fire Shows & Concerts”' to be held at Wallpack Center, New Jersey, a lovely small town in a very rural farming area. A year on from Woodstock the counterculture vibe was heavy in the air. The war between The Man and The Freaks was being fought everywhere from Kent State to DC. Vietnam protests were frequent and widespread. Into this frenetic culture and political situation came this 6-day proposition for...

This was one of Michigan’s biggest festival shows at the time with over 35 bands treading the boards over two days. The rock scene in Detroit orbited around the famous Grande Ballroom, home to the MC and The Stooges as well as the James Gang, Ted’s Amboy Dukes and many more. To ensure the gig got a good crowd, they shut the Ballroom that weekend. Clever move.  Produced by Russ Gibb who ran the Ballroom and would be the man behind several other festivals in the area, it was largely regarded as a huge success by which I mean, no-one...

Held at Hughes Stadium, 3835 Freeport Blvd, Sacramento on Sunday October 15th 1967. The line-up for this one-day festival was Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, Hamilton Streetcar, The Hour Glass, Jefferson Airplane, New Breed, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Spirit, Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Sunshine Company Because 1967’s Summer of Love became so associated with San Francisco, it’d be easy to assume the freaky and the deaky had not leaked out into the rest of the state just yet. But this wouldn’t be true. The focus was on the Haight Ashbury groovers, yes, but people were getting wide and experimenting with...

Held between Saturday May 30, 1970 and Mon Jun 01, 1970 at Thunderbird Beach, Thunderbird Place, Denham Springs Louisiana 70726. Confusingly, it’s not actually a beach. Looking at it today, it looks like some sort of camping leisure area, so I assume that’s what it was back in 1970 when promoter Jim Brown put the gig together. Obviously, what I like to call the Pleasant Valley Sunday types, were not too pleased with this, fearing the usual things: drugs, nudity and public grooving by freaks. Brown had gotten threatening phone calls from local residents and the city tried to shut...

A lot of festivals, especially in the early days, were some shade of chaotic but by hook and usually by crook, the freaks managed to put something on for the assembled crowd. But at Mexico’s first rock festival of the era, this was very much not the case. It had all seemed fine until a few days before it was due to be held in the Bullring on 13 October 1968. Maybe the fact so many bulls had been slaughtered there was bad ju ju. The festival was slated to feature the Animals, Iron Butterfly, Patchwork Security Blanket (great name!),...

This stands out in the history of rock and roll and of the counterculture for one reason: it was the last festival of the 60s. There had been 43 festivals in USA in 1969 and as the year drew to an end this was held over 3 days from Sat Dec 27, 1969 - Mon Dec 29, 1969 Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, Florida. The bill boasted some of the performers from Woodstock. I’m interested in Crow being on this bill. I’ve just bought one of their albums and didn’t know anything about them but it turns out they were a Minneapolis...

This was a typical one-day festival put on by the University of the Pacific, whose home was in Stockton in Northern California, not the one on Teesside where I grew up! Held at Pacific Memorial Stadium which was a 28,000-seat outdoor multi-purpose stadium, built in 1950 and which put on a few festivals back in the day before closing its doors in 1988.  It hosted the Stockton Rock Festival later in 1969 headlined by the Byrds, because this show on May 10 had been so successful, by which I mean, made the University a lot of money.  The bill was...

Now, here we have a festival that registered high on the Severely Groovy scale and low on the Hassle From The Man chart. Ideal. Held at Lake Amador, Amador, California on Oct 04, 1969 it was a very bucolic frolic for 40,000 and it’s roster of bands was very much drawn from the San Francisco hippie community, Amador being northeast of Stockton and southeast of Sacramento out in lovely rolling hill country.  The bill had a bluesy slant to it:  Al Wilson (of Canned Heat, I presume), Albert Collins, Bo Diddley, Cold Blood, Country Weather, Daybreak, Ike & Tina Turner,...