29-517: The Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair was a historic rock festival first held on a raspberry farm on the Skykomish River outside Sultan , Washington . The 1968 rock festival was held between August 31 to September 2. It was the first multi-day outdoor hippie rock festival at an undeveloped site. The line-up included bands the Grateful Dead , Santana , and others. The festival
58-402: A few short years, rock festivals played a unique, significant – and underappreciated – role in fueling the countercultural shift that swept not only America but many other countries [during the 1960s]. It seems fitting… that one of the most enduring labels for the entire generation of that era was derived from a rock festival: the ' Woodstock Generation'." Reflecting their musical diversity and
87-599: A noise impact on cows (“…it would cause them to lose flesh. They won’t be grazing.”) the local court stepped in to stop the festival; the State Supreme Court over stepped them to allow it on the day before it was to open. It was held at the Rainier Hereford Ranch, mostly dry grassland, near Tenino, south of Olympia. The crowd was estimated to be 30,000. Sky River III was held 1970 in Washougal, Washington . One of
116-474: A specific genre and may in turn become known and large enough to be seen as festivals themselves, such as was The Glade at the famous Glastonbury Festival in England. Advances in sound reinforcement systems beginning in the 1960s enabled larger and larger rock festival audiences to hear the performers' music with much better clarity and volume. The best example was the pioneering work of Bill Hanley , known as
145-512: The Hells Angels and Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club . Gravy in particular called his security group the "Please Force," a reference to their non-intrusive tactics at keeping order, e.g., "Please don't do that, please do this instead". When asked by the press — who were the first to inform him that he and the rest of his commune were handling security — what kind of tools he intended to use to maintain order at Woodstock in 1969, his response
174-489: The Monterey International Pop Festival (16–17 June). The concept caught fire and spread quickly as rock festivals took on a unique identity and attracted significant media attention around the world. By 1969, promoters were staging dozens of them. According to Bill Mankin, in their dawning age rock festivals were important socio-cultural milestones: "… it would not be an exaggeration to say that, over
203-453: The "father of festival sound", who provided the sound systems for numerous rock festivals including Woodstock. Other examples included the Wall of Sound invented in the 1970s to allow the Grateful Dead to play to larger audiences. Camping and crowd control Many festivals offer camping, either because lodging in the area is insufficient to support the crowd, or to allow easy multi-day access to
232-517: The Fish , Flying Burrito Brothers , Buddy Guy , Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks , Dr. Humbead's New Tranquility String Band, Kaleidoscope, Mississippi Fred McDowell , The Steve Miller Band , New Lost City Ramblers , Pacific Gas & Electric, Billy Roberts , Sons of Champlin , Mark Spoelstra , and many others. "Dr. Humbead's New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show" consisted of Sue Draheim , Jim Bamford, Mac Benford, and Will Spires. Most counties in
261-775: The Mexican American Federation of Washington, the Foundation for American Indian Rights and the Central Area Peace and Improvement Cooperative. The Camlin Hotel hosted performers for the festival. Bands and musicians scheduled in the lineup were; the Santana , Country Joe and the Fish , Richard Pryor , Dino Valente , Freedom Highway, Blues Feedback, Sandy Bull , Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, John Fahey , Byron Pope Ensemble, H.P. Lovecraft , Pink Floyd (who were on
290-466: The Night Tripper, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Steppenwolf A recent innovation is the traveling rock festival where many musical acts perform at multiple locations during a tour. Successful festivals are often held in subsequent years. The following is an incomplete list. The following is a list of festivals that predominantly feature rock genres that take place on a regular basis. Most are held at
319-569: The Sea, Gale Garnett 's band The Gentle Reign (sans Garnett), The Peanut Butter Conspiracy , Marble Farm, The Allman Joys , Black Snake Boogie, Flamin' Groovies , Salvation , Anonymous Artists of America. The last day members of the Grateful Dead jammed with James Cotton , Big Mama Thornton , and Billy Roberts . The festival was held Labor Day Weekend August 30 and September 1, 1969, in Tenino, Washington . The lineup had James Cotton , Country Joe and
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#1732869185433348-540: The Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair which occurred later that year. The first Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter than Air Fair', took place on August 28 through September 3, 1968; the town of Sultan, Washington was visited by approximately 4,000-5,000 young people during the festival. Though the event was ticketed, many people showed up without tickets and snuck in. The promoters claimed to have lost $ 6,000, although proceeds were to be donated to
377-463: The event moved to the town of Windsor, the rock and pop acts clearly dominated the jazz artists. A similar, though more rapid, evolution occurred with Jazz Bilzen , a solely jazz festival that was inaugurated in 1965 in the Belgian city of Bilzen. The 1966 festival still featured mostly jazz acts. However, by the time of the third festival from 25 to 27 August 1967, rock and pop acts had edged out most of
406-407: The festival's features. Festival planning and logistics are frequently a focus of the media, some festivals such as the heavily commercialized Woodstock 1999 were crowd control disasters, with insufficient water and other resources provided to audiences. Many early rock festivals successfully relied on volunteers for crowd control , for example individuals like Wavy Gravy and biker groups such as
435-704: The jazz bands and become the main attraction. In the United States, rock festivals seemed to spring up with a more self-defined musical identity. Preceded by several precursor events in the San Francisco area, the first two rock festivals in the US were staged in northern California on consecutive weekends in the summer of 1967: the KFRC Fantasy Fair & Magic Mountain Music Festival on Mount Tamalpais (10–11 June) and
464-470: The longest-duration festivals, lasting 10 days from August 28 until September 8, with daily attendance in excess of 10,000 on some days. Over 40 bands were featured on the event posters. In 1970, the nucleus of the Air Pirates cartoonist collective met at the Sky River Rock Festival. Bay Area residents Ted Richards and Bobby London met Shary Flenniken and Dan O'Neill at the media booth, where Flenniken
493-404: The money often gathered through fundraising and angel investors . Stages and sound systems While rock concerts typically feature a small lineup of rock bands playing a single stage, rock festivals often grow large enough to require several stages or venues with live bands playing concurrently. As rock music has increasingly been fused with other genres, sometimes stages will be devoted to
522-472: The poster but in Europe at the time and did not play), Country Weather , Easy Chair, Floating Bridge, Steppenwolf , Frumious Bandersnatch , New Lost City Ramblers , It's a Beautiful Day , The Youngbloods , My Indole Ring, Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck , Billy Roberts , Alice Stuart Thomas, Josh White , San Francisco Mime Troupe , Ramblin' Jack Elliot , Juggernaut, Phoenix, Sons of Champlin , Mystic Knights of
551-584: The rapidly changing musical tastes of the time. For example, the United Kingdom's National Jazz Festival was launched in Richmond from 26 to 27 August 1961. The first three of these annual outdoor festivals featured only jazz music, but by the fourth "Jazz & Blues Festival" in 1964, a shift had begun that incorporated some blues and pop artists into the lineup. In 1965, for the first time the event included more blues, pop and rock acts than jazz, and by 1966, when
580-670: The same organization. Production and financing Several of the early rock festival organizers of the 1960s such as Chet Helms , Tom Rounds , Alex Cooley and Michael Lang helped create the blueprint for large-scale rock festivals in the United States, as well promoters such as Wally Hope in the United Kingdom. In various countries, the organizers of rock festivals have faced legal action from authorities, in part because such festivals have attracted large counterculture elements. In 1972, Mar Y Sol Pop Festival in Manatí, Puerto Rico attracted an estimated 30–35,000 people, and an arrest warrant
609-644: The state of Washington had outlawed rock festivals by 1968, although Gov. Dan Evans said, “We can’t ban a rock concert, per se." Promotor John Chambless, who otherwise taught philosophy at the University of Washington , first found a site near Enumclaw , that was offered and then taken away, before settling on the Tenino site. A day after the Woodstock festival began, the Sky River II festival began to be noticed. When Woodstock
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#1732869185433638-485: The then-common term ' pop music ', for the first few years, particularly in the US, many rock festivals were called 'pop festivals'. This also served to distinguish them among the ticket-buying public from other, pre-existing types of music festivals such as jazz and folk festivals. By the end of 1972, the term 'pop festival' had virtually disappeared as festival promoters adopted more creative, unique and location-specific names to identify and advertise their events. While it
667-456: The venue. Some festivals are singular events, while others recur annually in the same location. Occasionally, a festival will focus on a particular genre (e.g., folk , heavy metal , world music ), but many attempt to bring together a diverse lineup to showcase a broad array of popular music trends. Initially, some of the earliest rock festivals were built on the foundation of pre-existing jazz and blues festivals, but quickly evolved to reflect
696-459: Was "Cream pies and seltzer bottles ." Other rock festivals hire private security or local police departments for crowd control, with varying degrees of success. Saturday, 21 June - Eric Anderson, Al Kooper, The Band, Bonzo Dog Band, Johnny Winter, Velvet Underground and Sly & the Family Stone. Sunday, 22 June - Ronnie Hawkins, Chuck Berry, Kensington Market, Tiny Tim, Nucleus, Dr. John &
725-474: Was held the next year on labor Day weekend August 30 and September 1, 1969 in Tenino, Washington , and finally on August 28 until September 8, 1970 in Washougal, Washington . " The Piano Drop ": On April 28, 1968, approximately 3,000 fans attended a rock concert at a farm in Duvall, Washington where an upright piano was dropped from a helicopter. Performances included Country Joe and the Fish . This event inspired
754-464: Was issued for promoter Alex Cooley, who avoided arrest by leaving the island before the festival was over. British Free Festival organizers Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle were imprisoned for attempting to promote a 1975 Windsor Festival. The British police would later outright attack free festival attendees at the 1985 Battle of the Beanfield . Festivals may require millions of USD to be organized, with
783-580: Was over, Tenino-area residents held a public meeting to oppose Sky River II. It was billed as the Stop the Rock Festival Committee, meeting on August 21, led by a leader of the local John Birch Society , who claimed they couldn't allow an event that was the “glorification of communist movements in foreign countries.” Landowners and the Tenino Chamber of Commerce filed suit, the suit claimed there would be
812-426: Was producing a daily Sky River newsletter on a mimeograph machine. Before the festival was over the four of them produced a four-page tabloid comic, Sky River Funnies , mostly drawn by London. Rock festival A rock festival is an open-air rock concert featuring many different performers, typically spread over two or three days and having a campsite and other amenities and forms of entertainment provided at
841-416: Was still in vogue, however, over-zealous promoters eager to capitalize on the festival concept made the most of it, with some using the term "Pop Festival" or "Rock Festival" to advertise events held on a single day or evening, often indoors, and featuring only a handful of acts. Today, rock festivals are usually open-air concerts spread out over two or more days and many of the annual events are sponsored by
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