Tag Archives: Festivals

Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s

1969 Forest Hills Music Festival

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1969 Forest Hills Music Festival

Saturdays between July 12 and Aug  23

1969 Forest Hills Music Festival

1969 Festival #25

OK. This is not quite a festival in the sense that I’ve been posting them. It’s more a season. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were not at any of the other festivals I’ve blogged about so far. Not surprisingly, they will not be at any of the remaining 24 I will cover.

The prices were pricey considering the fact that only one or two acts were on a single night’s bill.

In 1968, I had attended the August 24 event at this venue. It was a strong bill: Soft Machine, Chambers Brothers, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. The stage was in the middle and rotated so we all could see. The stage was in the middle and rotated so we all couldn’t see.

Fear of Rock

The Doors had played at Forest Hills on August 12, 1967 and it got out of hand. I wonder whether Woodstock Ventures had that in mind when making up its wish list? Jim Morrison seemed to relish antagonizing and pushing buttons.

1969 Forest Hills Music Festival

18,000 in 1968

1969 Forest Hills Music Festival

1969 Forest Hills Music Festival

Singer Bowl

The Singer Bowl hosted the Forest Hills Music Festival.

1969 Forest Hills Music Festival

The Singer Bowl was part of the 1964 New York World’s Fair.  Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters on their Furthur bus trip famously visited it. The Bowl hosted Fair-related events and after the Fair ended it hosted other events such as Olympic trials, religious events, prize fights, and concerts.

At a point, the US Tennis Authority took over the site for its annual US Open Tournament. Today, greatly expanded and upgraded, the USTA continues to use the site for that purpose as well as providing tennis courts for the city’s youth.

Festival or not?

So. Was this series a festival? That question is like asking, “What was a hippie?”

Since so many Woodstock performers would be there (Janis, Richie, Johnny, & BS & T) I am going to lean toward answering that question affirmatively. Or simply with an asterisk after it on the list.

Woodstock futures

Janis and Richie

Janis Joplin and Richie Havens played the festival on July 19. And…

Blood Sweat & Tears and Johnny Winter

On July 26, Blood, Sweat and Tears and the ubiquitous Johnny Winter played.

The NY Times said that Winter was “singing with ever larger gulps of blues.”

1969 Forest Hills Music Festival

Next 1969 festival: Newport Folk Festival

Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

1969 Laurel Pop Festival

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1969 Laurel Pop Festival

Laurel Race Course, Laurel, Maryland

July 11 & 12, 1969

1969 festival #24

1969 Laurel Pop Festival

Audio from a series of videos the Laurel History Boys did.
1969 Laurel Pop Festival

The 24th festival of 1969. I realize that there were other 1969 music events such as jazz, country, and folk festivals, but I am limiting my ongoing coverage to what I generally refer to as rock festivals. I included the Newport Jazz Festival earlier in the month because it included several rock bands as well.

1969 Laurel Pop Festival

Nice line-up

The Laurel Pop Festival does not make the list of answers when we ask anyone, “Name a festival that happened in 1969.” If we said “Laurel Pop Festival” to anyone, we likely  get a blank look.

The line up for that weekend suggests otherwise on both counts. We should know it. Look at the line up:

July 11

  • Al Kooper
  • Jethro Tull
  • Johnny Winter
  • Edwin Hawkins Singers
  • Led Zeppelin
  • Buddy Guy

July 12

  • Jeff Beck
  • Ten Years After
  • Sly and the Family Stone
  • Mothers of Invention
  • Savoy Brown
  • Guess Who

This post’s background audio mentions that five of the Laural Pop acts played at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in August.

Actually not.

Three did and I’ve underlined them. I again note that Johnny Winter played. The guy was indefatigable that summer!

Nick and Bobbi Ercoline

Perhaps the most iconic photo of Woodstock attendees (as opposed to Woodstock performers) is the picture of Nick and Bobbi Ercoline.

1969 Laurel Pop Festival

For Laurel Pop we have John and Debbie. I suppose had Laurel Pop become as famous as Woodstock, we’d recognize them today, too.

1969 Laurel Pop Festival

The picture of John and Debbie is from a site that attendees have commented about their experiences there.

Wet ending

From the Baltimore Sun: Lost in the smoky haze of 1960s history is The Laurel Pop Festival held in July 1969, which was attended by 15,000 fans and offered an incredible lineup of some of the biggest pop performers of the year. Held just one month before Woodstock, The Laurel Pop Festival ended in controversy as rain-soaked fans built bonfires with wooden folding chairs and refused to leave as the concert dragged on into the early morning.

Laurel History Boys

A site called the Laurel History Boys posted a piece in 2019 on their golden anniversary presentation of the event. Lot’s of pictures and information about Led Zeppelin.

Link to that piece followed by a video with an interview with Kevin Leonard,  one of the Laurel History Boys.

https://laurelhistory.com/2019/07/12/great-fun-at-the-laurel-pop-festival-celebration/

1969 Laurel Pop Festival

Next 1969 festival: 1969 Forest Hills Music Festival

Festivals, Music of the 60s

1969 Saugatuck Pop Festival

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1969 Saugatuck Pop Festival

July 4 – 5

Pottawattamie Beach, Saugatuck, MI
1969 festival #20
1969 Saugatuck Pop Festival
ARTWORK: GARY GRIMSHAW
1969 Saugatuck Pop Festival

Line up

  • MC5
  • SRC
  • Procol Harum
  • Muddy Waters
  • John Lee Hooker
  • Amboy Dukes
  • Rotary Connection
  • Crazy World of Arthur Brown
  • Bob Seger
  • Frost
  • The Stooges
  • Big Mama Thornton
1969 Saugatuck Pop Festival

Festivals Continue

I reckon this as the 20th festival of the 1969 festival season. The main reason I’ve done these reviews is because for decades I ignorantly thought Woodstock was the only festival of 1969.

Sure, there was Altamont at the end of the year with its tragedy and the shibboleth that the “60s ended at Altamont.”

The 60s in its full meaning had hardly begun until 1965 and certainly continued into the early 70s at least.

The legacy of the so-called 60s is a topic for another time, another discussion.

1969 Saugatuck Pop Festival

Faded festivals

The reasons why some festivals, despite stellar performers likely doing stellar performances, faded with the newspapers that had a few columns about them are not complicated.

1. The location was away from the mainstream media’s purview.
2. The promoters had not the foresight or finances to record or film their event.

1969 Saugatuck Pop Festival

Woodstock Music and Art Fair

As much as Michael Shrieve and his “Soul Sacrifice” drum solo helped carve Santana’s performance onto the monument of rock history, the fact that Woodstock Ventures did have the foresight to record and film the festival with high quality equipment made Woodstock the historic event it is today.

Stop stalling…

When am I going to start telling you about the Saugatuck Pop Festival? Unfortunately there’s not much to tell.

Here we go…

Alice Cooper

First: not listed but at the festival was Alice Cooper. In fact, one of the few things found about the festival is that the positive reception the band got at Saugatuck gave them the boost they had been looking for to continue as a band. [From The Original Glen Buxton site]

Gary Grimshaw
1969 Saugatuck Pop Festival
photo from the Grimshaw site

Second: Gary Grimshaw designed the poster. According to the bio at his site, “…Grimshaw (1946 – 2016) had a fifty-year carreer in the arts. He touched on many traditional disciplines and innovated new techniques. woven into his early and mid-career works are great examples of early underground comics.

Plea

So (not supposed to start sentences with “So…”) today’s blog is a request: do any of you have any information about the event? If so please comment and let me know and I’ll add what you contribute and give you credit for that contribution.

Follow up to Plea

Thank you to all (especially Paul) for all your memories. First hand accounts are terrific!

1969 Saugatuck Pop Festival

Next 1969 festival: Atlanta International Pop Festival