Aquarian Family Festival
23 – 24 May 1969
San Jose, CA
1969 festival #6
Aquarian Family Festival
Not just Woodstock
Mention the words festival and 1969 and most people will respond Woodstock. That is a sensible association as too would be the word Altamont. However, dig around a bit and you’ll find that 1969 is spangled with rock festivals.
May 23 marks the first of them. In fact there were three that occurred that weekend, two of which were less than a mile apart.
On May 18 – 19, 1968 The Northern California Folk-Rock Festival had been held. It was controversial because of the the several “announced” bands had not actually been booked and nearly 1,000 attendees experienced PCP drug reactions.
Dennis Jay
The following year when the 1969 Northern California Folk-Rock Festival was announced, Dennis Jay (of the Drug Crisis Intervention group), members of San Jose’s Free University, the Institute for Research and Understanding, and the Druid Corporation (a musicians collective) announced a counter-festival: the Aquarian Family Festival. It was a free concert.
While free concerts were not unheard of, major free concerts were rare. Any actual free concert fed the idea that music should be for free, not something to be paid for. Such an idea doppled forward to that famous August weekend in Bethel, NY.
Another unique facet of the Aquarian Family Festival was that camping was permitted so that attendees could stay on site for the two days. Perhaps Michael Lang read about that, too?
Great line-up
Since the Aquarian Family Festival wasn’t recorded or filmed, it lives in obscurity like most of the many other 1969 festivals. Those facts should not deny its just place in festival history.
Here is the not-too-shabby list of performers for this festival and keep in mind that the Northern California Folk-Rock Festival was happening simultaneously. Interestingly, Jefferson Airplane appeared at both. Most of the bands were local and there are so many because one of the stipulations was that the music had to be continuous. (*would play at Woodstock)
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Amphetamine Gazelle
I hope Mad River played “Amphetamine Gazelle.” And many thanks to Metroactive.com. Also, the featured image on top is of the Chocolate Watchband. Who knew!
Aquarian Family Festival
Ace of Cups
The first band listed (alphabetically) is the Ace of Cups, an all-female band from the Haight. Here’s a report about them.
Aquarian Family Festival
I always enjoy getting someone’s first-hand account about an event I blog about. I got this email from Roger Desmond who was at the festival:
It was a bunch of us talking. We thought the fairgrounds festival was a rip-off for many reasons. Mainly, the promoter, Bob Blodgett promised that Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin would play but we found out they were booked at another venue at the same time. Soooo we basically contacted the bands and told them we wanted to do a free concert and wham! It was happening. As a San Jose State student I was able to help secure the venue. Ironically, Jimi showed up and checked it out, and would have played but the amps he needed were not present. But the bands that DID play were amazing!
As major organizer Dennis Jay said “Its what we always wanted!”
Aquarian Family Festival
Wow, I was a teen, in Aquarian family & participated a bit with the “putting together” tho my most vivid memories of the actual event was “sleeping”under the space of the stage
while bands played… quite the education – And the druid house band thockmorton’s sound guy Mark. he was a gentleman, genius.
Thanks for the reply and the story. Always love hearing first-hand accounts especially from someone who not only was there, but a part of the event itself.
Hi Gina! I am Roger Desmond. I was there too!Helped with securing the practice field. Worked at switchboard! I remember you!
desmond@hartford.edu
That Gurl can PLAY the Drums !…Wish I knew ’em back in the day…I was a young ”Aspirin” Drummer myself….Thanks for the Video…. AH ! The good ‘ol days….
I was the drummer in Nymbus. We took the stage mid day on the second day. There was a power surge that blew the fuses on our amps. No one had replacement fuses so our manager wrapped aluminum foil around the blown fuses and replaced them. Another power surge happened which, without fuses to blow, blew up our amps, smoke everywhere. Nice effect it the end of a performance but anticlimactic at the beginning. Our friends in the band Mad River were scheduled to perform before Jefferson Airplane, the last act of the concert. They graciously offered to let us use there amps & drum kit for to play after them and before the Airplane performed. A very happy ending and we had a great performance /time. Fantastic audience as well.
Love such first hand stories especially from a band’s perspective. Thank you.
My band, Zephyr Grove , was slated to play last. We left and headed up to SF to play at The Blue Unicorn in the Haight Ashbury. We were just high schoolers from San Jose. Our lead singer and guitarist was Randy Stonehill who later. became a renowned Christian Rock performer.
I was there performing as the lead singer for The Sounds Unlimited Blues Band. Most of the band was still in high school at Mission. Myself, Jim Dotson- the drummer & Jorge Santana who played lead guitar, along with my brother Tom & brother-in-law, Fred Pratt on bass. It was the biggest crowd we had ever played in front of. It was very mellow the sound system was very good & the stage crew was top notch, very professional. So many good bands played & we were so jazzed to be a part of the event.
I went (probably the 2nd day) and I distinctly remember seeing the names of bands stenciled on their equipment. Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother, and Quicksilver. Pretty sure I heard Janis. I was 13 and — other than the stencils and people forming human chains and wending through the crowd — my memory is a bit foggy at this point. My sister lived for a while in the Throckmorton house (Druid Corporation?).
I went for part of two days. I was about to graduate from high school in Willow Glen (San Jose). It was a mixed bag. Here are some of the things I remember: lots of drugs – lots. People were taking reds (Seconol) and drinking wine at the same time and many were passed out and some seriously compromised. They kept announcing from the stage not to do that combination. There was a big tepee in the middle of the field. A friend of mine went in there and witnessed what was essentially a gang rape of a young woman. This has been documented. I remember power surges blowing out amps (per the post of a band member above). I went to the big NorCal Festival at the Fairgrounds for part of one day (I had attended two days of it in 1968). Someone calling himself the “Hog Man” threw hundreds of capsules of PCP into the crowd from the stage. A hour or two later, they had lined up the really messed up people up against a chain link fence to be handled by medical personnel. I looked at them and realized that not everything for free was good or safe, a good lesson for a person about to turn 18 years old. Some were taken away in ambulances (as were some at the Aquarian Festival). I do remember the Youngbloods playing as a trio at the big festival. They were down to a trio, as Jerry Corbitt had left the group. The did “Get Together” and a huge crowd of people joined hands and arms and swayed together as we sang along with the band. Little did I know that this was one of the last touchy-feeley good times of the 60’s that I would experience (Altamont was right around the corner).