The Road to Woodstock 1969... January
Introduction
Important Festivals Leading to Woodstock
The "Summer of Love" 1967
In January 1967, Michael Bowen produced the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, where many Attendees (25,000) dropped acid for the first time (lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD) and listened to Timothy Leary tell the Crowd that people living in cities should reorganize as tribes and villages. This was one of the important precursors to the Summer of Love five months later. The Human Be-In directly inspired the Monterey International Pop Festival.
"Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival"
The first American Hippie-style Rock Festival was held on June 10–11, 1967 at Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California, produced by radio station KFRC as the "Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival." Star performers included the Doors, the Sons of Champlin, Moby Grape, the Steve Miller Blues Band, Jefferson Airplane, Hugh Masekela, Country Joe and the Fish, Canned Heat, and the Byrds; the latter 7 Acts also played Monterey International Pop Festival 1967 one week later.
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival (1967)
Was a three-day Music Festival held June 16 to 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California.The Festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Who and Ravi Shankar, the first large-scale public performance of Janis Joplin, and the introduction of Otis Redding to a mass American Audience.
The Festival embodied the theme of California as a focal point for the counterculture and generally is regarded as one of the beginnings of the "Summer of Love" in 1967 and the public debut of the hippie, flower power, and Flower Children movements and era. Because Monterey was widely promoted and heavily attended, featured historic performances, and was the subject of a popular theatrical documentary film, it became an inspiration and a template for future music festivals, including the Woodstock Festival two years later. Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner said, "Monterey was the nexus – it sprang from what the Beatles began, and from it sprang what followed."
Organized in just seven weeks by a team including John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas and record producer Lou Adler, the festival featured over 30 artists performing across five shows. The festival embodied the counterculture movement, with artists performing for free and all proceeds going to charity. Attended by an estimated 90,000 people over the 3 days, Monterey Pop became a template for future music festivals, including Woodstock two years later. The event was captured in D.A. Pennebaker's documentary "Monterey Pop," preserving iconic moments such as Jimi Hendrix setting his Guitar on fire and The Who destroying their Instruments on stage
"1968 Pop and Underground Festival,"
An estimated 25,000 people attended the Event that took place on May 18-19, 1968 in Hallandale, Florida at the Gulfstream Park a horse racing track just north of Miami. Bands featured at the festival included The Package, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Mothers of Invention, Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and Blues Image. The opening act on Saturday was a little-known group called The Package, and the closing act was The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The second part of what was scheduled as a two-day event, Sunday's Concert was rained out, but there was at least one beneficial result — it inspired Hendrix to write "Rainy Day, Dream Away."
The "Miami Pop Festival" 1968
The Miami Pop Festival took place from December 28-30, 1968, at Gulfstream Park, a horse racing track in Hallandale, Florida, just north of Miami. It was the first major rock festival on America's east coast. It was produced by a team led by Tom Rounds and Mel Lawrence, (Michael Lang) who had previously produced the seminal KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. The crowd size for the three days was estimated to be around 100,000.
The Genesis of Woodstock
After promoting the Miami Pop Festival in May 1968, one Michael Lang sold his Hippie Head Shop in Miami and moved to Woodstock, New York after having experienced the thriving Music Community there. The Artists Colony was the Summer residence of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendricks, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, The Band, and members of Blood, Sweat, and Tears. He had the idea of creating a Recording Studio and a Record Label in Woodstock in 1969… to make a local place for Hip Woodstock Residents to record their Songs.
At that time, he was managing a Garage Band called The Train... while hustling to get them a Contract, he met up with one Artie Kornfeld, a Capital Records Executive and they hit it off. Kornfeld liked his idea and to finance the Vision, they decided to make a plan to hold a Concert that would turn into a yearly Event like Newport.
They connected with 2 New York Financiers, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman who would bankroll the Event so they started "Woodstock Ventures". The idea for the concert became a reality when Lang and Kornfeld contacted the two Young, Wealthy investors from New York City who had posted ads in the “Capital Available” sections of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal stating, “Young Men with Unlimited Capital looking for interesting, legitimate investment opportunities and business propositions.”
The four met several times in early 1969 and the Woodstock festival transformed from a mere idea to a reality… Roberts provided $500,000 in initial funds to support the project while Rosenman drew up and reviewed the Legal Contracts and affairs necessary to move the Project forward.
Lang first sought to distribute roles to each of the Partners: Kornfeld would be in charge of Publicity and advertising, investing roughly an additional $200,000 into Promotions while garnering “a tremendous amount of excitement and speculation” about the festival on NYC Radio Stations. Lang acted as the hands-on Producer of the festival… booking the Talent, Designing and Preparing the Site, and putting together the Production Team.
Roberts and Rosenman would utilize their backgrounds in Finance and Law to oversee Business Administration and Ticket distribution and Purchasing. The Partners agreed upon calling the festival, “An Aquarian Exposition: The Woodstock Music and Arts Fair” In regards to the name of the concert, Lang stated:
“I suggested “Aquarian Exposition” to encompass all the arts, not only music but crafts, painting, sculpture, dance, theatre… I wanted to reference the Aquarian age, an era of great harmony predicted by astrologers to coincide with the late twentieth century, a time when stars and planets would align to allow for more understanding, sympathy, and trust in the world. Our festival would be that place for the people to come together to celebrate the coming of a new age.”
To begin Ticket Distribution and Sales, Rosenman and Roberts began researching the major population centers of the northeastern corridor - New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts… and determined that as many as 200,000 people could attend the Festival. With this record-breaking estimation in mind, Lang and his partners set about securing a location for the concert, with Woodstock being their first option.
Finding strong objections from the local Town Fathers of Woodstock, they passed Regulations of such an Event, and for most wealthy Residents, their effort turned to nearby Saugerties… despite the Setback, confidence was so strong amongst the Ventures that August 15 was settled for the 3-day Event.
Next... the the Journey roles on...