Category Archives: Festivals

Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Today in history

Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969

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Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969

August 22, 23, and 24
Pelletier Farm, St Helens, Oregon

1969 festival #34

Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969

Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969

The Bullfrog 2 Festival

It is not a typo that this blog piece is about “The Bullfrog 3 Festival” and the poster pictured above refers to “The Bullfrog 2 Festival.”

#3 was actually the impromptu festival that happened when, facing local opposition, the Bullfrog 2 Festival fell apart a few days before its scheduled August 21 start.

It is important to keep in mind the often angry and hatefully divisive opposition there was toward young people who wanted to get together and listen to what had come to be called “underground music.” The residents of Wallkill, NY had successfully evicted Woodstock Ventures from their original site, forcing the festival to unexpectely find another venue.

Luckily for 400,000 + people, Max Yasgur said “Yes.”

While festivals of this time did sometimes have some people who threw off their clothes, some who used illegal drugs, some who sold illegal drugs, and some whose view of the Establishment was simply anti-Establishment, most young people were simply working part-time for the summer, working full-time since high school, home on military leave, or about to be drafted.

Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969

No chaperones!

Scott Laird wrote of the days before: According to original articles published in The Sentinel-Mist Chronicle newspaper in the week prior, Bullfrog II was booked by Walsh and Moquin Productions at the Columbia County Fairgrounds in St. Helens and was scheduled to include national acts Taj Mahal and the Grateful Dead along with local performers “Portland Zoo,” “Sabatic Goat,” “The Weeds,” “New Colony,” and several others.  The plan called for twenty-four hour a day entertainment for two days.   Advertising for the concert also called for “petite mall lites, space balloons, rides and fireworks.” Tickets were $6 in advance, $7 at the gate.

The day before the scheduled start of the event, Circuit Judge Glen Heiber ruled that the facilities at the fairgrounds were not adequate for overnight camping and sanitation and adequate traffic control was not available. He had agreed with Columbia County District Attorney Lou L. Williams who contested the original contract and stated a fear of  “…narcotics, intercourse in the open, and parking on private property, as well as a severe traffic congestion problem.”

Williams had also contended that “…sanitation, parking, and the lack of sufficient law enforcement personnel to cope with a large influx of people, estimated to be about 6,000.”

And no chaperoning arrangements!

Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969
Bullfrog 2 Festival

On Wednesday 20 August, the day of the cancellation and the day before the festival’s scheduled start, some young fans  gathered in front of the St Helens’s Courthouse. Local people gawked at the peaceful assembly.

On Thursday 21 August 21 the group grew and that afternoon, the Portland Zoo, a local band on the festival schedule, performed. All remained relaxed. Gawking continued. Business owners enjoyed the extra commerce the crowds brought. Fans cleaned up.

Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969

Mrs. Melvina Pelletier

Again from Scott Laird: Around 9:00 PM on [that] Thursday evening Mrs. Melvina Pelletier of St. Helens offered her property in the Happy Hollow area of Yankton for the festival. Details of the newly created Bullfrog III were  worked out on Friday. Original promoters Walsh and Moquin had already pulled out of the event, and Bob Wehe of Faucet International Promotions took over as promoter, agreeing to provide sanitation and security.

Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969

August 22 – 24, 1969

The truncated festival finally got underway on Friday night and continued until Sunday morning.

Cars crowded the roads, but many reported that local residents were among the jam trying to see these drugged kids with long hair, shoe-less, bra-less, or even (heaven forbid!) topless.

And chaperone-less, of course.

Fortunately for the festival, the Dead headlined and fortunately for us, the set is available on a soundboard recording (SBD) or a matrix if you prefer a little more audience in the mix. And this wasn’t their first concert since their August 16th Woodstock performance. They’d already played in Seattle on August 20 and would play in on August 24…but where? Was it the Vancouver Pop Festival or in San Francisco?

There isn’t much more available about the actual music at Mrs Pelletier’s place, but we should thank her. A west coast Max Yasgur.

Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969

Cheryl Viuhkola Pelletier

In 2020, a Cheryl Viuhkola Pelletier commented (see below) on this post. I asked her if she had any other memories. This was her response:

Since I ended up marrying Melvina’s son, Al Pelletier, I do have a first hand, eyewitness account of the festival.  I’m also writing about it and enjoy the research you provided.  So, far, your account sounds pretty accurate .  I do have some tid- bits from Al and myself as I attended with a good friend.  The traffic on Yankton Road was backed up for miles and miles ( very narrow two-lane twisty country road), and the cops were making it worse.  So, we left our cars parked where we were and started walking.  The police were trying to stop us from entering the farm, when I see this good-looking , dark-haired guy riding a white horse, shouting out to one and all, “Follow me.  I know a shortcut”.  Of course he did.  He could walk those acres in his sleep I was to learn later.   Those were the days…

Thank you, Cheryl.

Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969
Bullfrog 3 Festival 1969

Next 1969 festival: Vancouver Pop Festival

Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s

1969 Miami Rock Festival

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1969 Miami Rock Festival

1969 festival #50
December 27, 28, & 29
International Speedway, Hollywood, Florida
Last actual rock festival of 1969
“Last rock festival of the 60’s”

1969 Miami Rock Festival

1969 Miami Rock Festival

1969: a year of festivals

And so we come to the end of 1969 and the many festivals of that year besides the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.

Back on April 1 we had the first one of 1969: the Palm Springs Pop Festival. By the end of June and the Denver Pop Festival there had already been eleven American festivals and on June 28 there would be the Bath Festival of Blues in England.

By the end of July, we’d have the Midwest Pop Festival in Milwaukee and it marked the 22th American festival.

By the end of August the New Orleans Pop Festival marked the 31st festival of 1969.

There were many other festivals as well during 1969 that I have not covered. They all fall under the category as “minor” but of course to those who organized them or to those who attended them, a festival is a festival.

I have not excluded any large American festival as far as I know. I know I have not included some of those so-called minor festivals, particularly in Michigan which seemed to have many local ones that summer.

1969 Miami Rock Festival

Miami

The 1969 Miami Rock Festival was the forty-third festival that year. I have mentioned the two UK festivals. And at the same time that the Miami Rock Festival was going on, the Mid Winter Pop Festival was not.

I included the Mid Winter because it seems (not much information about it other than its poster) like it would have been an amazing event–had it happened.

Interestingly, the Miami Rock Festival has nearly as little about it. Setlist.fm seems to show who played on certain days, but it is obviously incomplete since some of the bands listed below are not on the poster above and some of the bands named on the poster are not listed below:

Sat 27 December

  • Canned Heat*
  • Vanilla Fudge

Sun 28 Dec

  • Biff Rose
  • Cold Blood
  • Grateful Dead*
  • Johnny Winter*
  • Sweetwater*
  • The Amboy Dukes
  • Paul Butterfield Blues Band*
  • The Turtles

Mon 29 Dec

  • Santana*
  • The Band*
  • Tony Joe White
1969 Miami Rock Festival

Woodstock?

The amazing thing is that at least seven of the Woodstock artists were there. I have asterisked them.

1969 Miami Rock Festival

Grateful Dead

Despite the fact the above breakdown comes from Setlist.fm, the only band whose link has a set list is the Dead. No surprise there. And, of course, we have a link to a soundboard recording of their show: Grateful Dead on December 28, 1969.  What that recording shows is that they played:

  • Black Peter
  • Me And My Uncle
  • China Cat Sunflower ->
  • Jam ->
  • I Know You Rider ->
  • High Time
  • Cumberland Blues
  • Good Lovin’ ->
  • Drums ->
  • Good Lovin’
  • Cold Rain And Snow
  • Hard To Handle
  • Mason’s Children
  • Turn On Your Love Light

The Internet Archive site has the following comments:

It is possible that this is not the complete show, though it would be likely that only one or two songs may have preceded Black Peter. There are definitely some rough spots that vary throughout the recording (especially Black Peter), but it is overall very listenable for a show from a cassette master. Mason’s Children was patched in from an alternate source (unknown lineage bootleg) as the primary source suffered from tape warble during this song. It is apparent that noise reduction was performed digitally on this song at some point on the secondary source, though the integrity of the sound does not suffer greatly. The pitch from the primary master was corrected using Sound Forge.

Black Peter comes in before the lyric “…just then the wind…” and is therefore missing a couple minutes or so. Good Lovin’ cuts out just over a minute into the drum solo, obliterating several minutes at least. The first half of Cold Rain is missing as well.

This is a loud and very rowdy show, prompting some priceless banter from the band.

1969 Miami Rock Festival

Contact me!

The only information I could find written about the festival was from the Miami Herald: Inspired by Woodstock the summer before, The Miami Rock Festival of December, 1969, drew thousands of young people determined to have fun and avoid paying admission, if they could. It wasn’t in Miami. It took place at the Miami-Hollywood Speedway, then 15 long miles west of Hollywood, but now a housing development in the middle of Pembroke Pines. Performers included Mother Lode, Sweetwater, Canned Heat, Johnny Winter, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Vanilla Fudge and the Amboy Dukes. Fans were searched by police, lashed by cold winds and encouraged to “turn on to God” by Billy Graham. Graham said he appreciated the respectful welcome he got, but police made at least 47 arrests and one young man died in a fall from a spotlight tower.

If anyone has any other information or link to that information about this festival, please comment or let me know. Much appreciated.

1969 Miami Rock Festival

In 2019, a Mike Nason contacted me to say he’d just won an auction for the festival’s program. Here are some of its pages:

1969 Miami Rock Festival 1969 Miami Rock Festival

1969 Miami Rock Festival

There was one more schedule 1969 festival, but it didn’t happen: the Mid-Winter Pop Festival

Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s

1969 Mid Winter Pop Festival not

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1969 Mid Winter Pop Festival not

Not 1969 festival #51

1969 Mid Winter Pop Festival not

December 27, 28, and 29, 1969 (not)
Blythe, California (not)

According to the Desert USA site:  Blythe, California is agriculturally based but heavily influenced by tourism, Blythe is located on the California-Arizona border where Interstate 10 crosses the Colorado River. Blythe’s population more than triples during the winter months with the arrival of visitors seeking relief from their cold climate home states during that season.

In the summer, in spite of extreme high Sonoran Desert temperatures, Blythe is a center for water sports along the Colorado River. Blythe is a small town and the people are very warm and friendly. Blythe’s educational system offers students facilities from pre-school through community college.

1969 Mid Winter Pop Festival not

Poster says…

The Mid Winter Pop Festival was the BIGGEST and BEST of ’69. At least that is what its poster proclaimed. Attendees were going to “See and Hear Dozens of GREAT STARS in Person!

It was going to be… A MUSICAL HAPPENING FOR LOVERS OF ROCK AND SOUL….

SET IN THE DRY, WARM DESERT SOUTHWEST – ALONG THE BEAUTIFUL COLORADO RIVER SOUTH OF

BLYTHE, CALIFORNIA

There would be no less than 14 HOURS OF FABULOUS ENTERTAINMENT EACH DAY !!!

100,000 ACRES WITH PLENTY OF WATER, SANITATION AND MEDICAL FACILITIES. CAMPING AREAS PROVIDED.

REASONABLY PRICED FOOD AND BEVERAGES

1969 Mid Winter Pop Festival not

Who would (not) be there?

  • Rotary Connection
  • Young Rascals
  • Bicycle
  • Linda Ronstadt
  • Laura Nyro
  • Eric Mercury
  • Chambers Brothers
  • Chicago Transit Authority
  • The Youngbloods
  • Brooklyn Bridge
  • Country Joe & the Fish
  • Pacific Gas & Electric
  • Steve Miller Band
  • Janis Joplin
  • Jefferson Airplane
  • Iron Butterfly
  • Neil Diamond
  • Buffy Sainte-Marie
  • …and many others
1969 Mid Winter Pop Festival not

Tickets

Tickets on sale at:

  • Jim Salle’s
  • Fahrenheit
  • Gay’s Men’s Shop
1969 Mid Winter Pop Festival not

Poster

TO RECEIVE YOUR TICKETS TO THIS FESTIVAL BY RETURN MAIL, FILL IN THE COUPON AND MAIL TO:

MID-WINTER POPS FESTIVAL, INC.

2818 St Louis St.

New Orleans, La 70119
Or
MID-WINTER POPS FESTIVAL

PO Box 47846

Atlanta, Ga. 30340

Tickets were $21 each or $30 at the gate.

There was a limited quantity available so Mid Winter Pops Festival, Inc encouraged fans to buy early and save.

Mid-Winter Pops Festival, Inc of 2818 St Louis St, New Orleans, LA sponsored the event.

1969 Mid Winter Pop Festival not

djtees

A blog site called djtees.com has a long essay about the not-festival and has a few opinions and as with my research little to go on. Here’s the complete post:

There is a genuine mystery about this festival. It’s another for the ‘it never happened’ file and in that, no so unusual. As we know, The Man was always trying to fend off the freaks with legislation, sometimes successfully, mostly not. But the Mid Winter Pop Festival doesn’t fall into that category. 

Blythe is a wee town on the border between California and Arizona, right out in the desert. Basically head east from Palm Desert on the 10 and you end up there. I love that road, it’s so elemental and wild out there. You feel so tiny and transient compared to all that old nature.

And, as any snowbird who vacations in Palm Springs knows, the desert is lovely and warm in the winter and although it can be cold at night, it’d be perfect festival weather for late December. 

With a strong bill it was bound to attract interest. 

Brooklyn Bridge, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Iron Butterfly, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Johnny Winter, Neil Diamond, Vanilla Fudge, Young Rascals

However, that isn’t enough bands for a three day fest, nowhere near enough. And that is where the mystery starts. The poster doesn’t even say where the gig was to be, just broadly referring to ‘Blythe vicinity.’ However, no applications for a festival were made in the area and no preparations were being made. No other words, no-one looking like Chip Monck with an army of longhairs armed with wood and nail guns had turned up anywhere near Blythe to put up a stage even a week or two before.

The San Bernardino Sun newspaper reported Riverside County Administrative Officer Robert T. Anderson said “The Blythe vicinity could mean a location in Riverside County, Imperial County to the South or in Arizona across the Colorado River,” But no public agency in either Riverside or Imperial counties has authorized any pop festival in either county, he added. 

So what was going on? One of the ticket agencies listed in an advertisement in an underground newspaper said it stopped selling tickets after it was notified the festival was moved from a 100,000-acre Blythe ranch to an as yet undisclosed location. The ad, signed by Mid-Winter Pops Festival, Inc, New Orleans, promised, “Watch next week’s ad for location ‘funkiest spot in America.”

But at that point, the trail goes cold. There was no further announcement and no Blythe festival or inheritor of that title seems to have happened. Now whether it was a scam all along, or a good idea that fell through, who really knows? However, the lack of bands on the bill, whether they were ever actually booked or not, I think is the clue. Other fests that had to be called off had a massive roster in place because you need about 30 bands for a 3-day show, Blythe had just nine. 

To me, it looks like someone used those bands to pull in some ticket sales, waited as long as possible, trousered the money and then cancelled a festival that was never going to happen. Also, it wasn’t clear who was putting the festival on, who was behind Mid-Winter Pops Festival, Inc, New Orleans and usually, there was at least a known figurehead, or some rich kid putting up the money. Again, that’s unusual. 

Advertising bands that were not confirmed bookings was a common scam, we saw it at the Northern California Folk Festival when Led Zeppelin were said to be on their way but hadn’t been signed up. Sometimes this was wilful deceit, more often it was a failure of procedure and logistics. 

But it wouldn’t be a surprise if someone advertised a festival by 1969, took money for tickets and then simply disappeared. It was easy to do in those analogue days. 

So Blythe never saw an influx of hippies and rockers and the desert kept on being quiet, wild and magnificent.

So…

…the event never happened and if you know why let me know.

1969 Mid Winter Pop Festival not

Here’s the post listing all the rock festivals I’ve found or been informed about.