After it was all over, the city fathers and Chambers Of Commerce, who had largely been in favour of the festival seemed to take against the idea of staging another, passing laws to prevent it. None of these sets seems to have been recorded and had official releases, but if you search YouTube you can find Janis's and Chicago's sets. And of course, everyone knows his tunes.ĬSN had pulled out with Nash claiming he had polyps on his tonsils even though he played Woodstock two weeks later - a case of quick healing polyps, apparently. He often played festivals, even though you'd think he was somewhat out of place, the freaks loved his wild performances and he loved their inhibition and predilection to get it on, which doubtless matched his own. Johnny Winter was on the bill but had some unspecified equipment problems so didn't play but Little Richard filled in for him and tore it up. Other performers that weekend included regular festival favourites Jefferson Airplane, CCR, Butterfield Blues band, BB King, Janis, Santana (their first east coast appearance and introduced by Janis and Mama Cass), Joe Cocker, Canned Heat and Three Dog Night. Getting in free had become a bit of a political statement to some, to other's it music! Security was virtually non-existent, so perhaps it was surprising that more trouble didn't break out. A couple of thousand people climbed the fences on Saturday night. The weekend wasn't without some violence. You needed loud guitars and a sound system as big as a planet to keep people's attention. Presumably, the crowd didn't even notice that, either! Playing delicate solo acoustic songs to a festival crowd became less and less easy to do as the gigs got bigger. But even when the PA was fixed, things were not any better, so she left the stage early in tears. The sound system was in and out a bit and she blamed their lack of attention on that. During her set Joni was performing 'Cactus Tree' and sang one verse twice, then stopped and said, "I sang that verse twice, and no-one noticed" But, as crowds who are distracted by themselves tend to do, they ignored her and were not even paying attention enough to realise what she'd said. Pictures show a wee thing really, surrounded by an ocean of people.Īt $15 for three days of top flight rock music, it was pretty good value. The stage was designed by notable physics and geodesic dome dude, Buckminster Fuller. CSNY and the Moody Blues were set to play, but didn't show. The first day featured Joni, Aum, the Chambers Brothers, Iron Butterfly, Dr John, Mother Earth, Chicago and Procol Harum. If you chose the latter you were lucky as you may have got hosed down by water truck there to literally keep you cool in the hot summer temperatures. Even so, you paid your money for a ticket to sit in the stands, or you could buy one for the floor - and just roam around the track groovin' baby. Hardly shouts counterculture the way being in a natural amphitheatre does. It was all neat and tidy and not a mass gathering of 400,000 of the best freaks America had to offer, the way Woodstock proved to be.Īlso, being on a racetrack isn't the most romantic of locations really. Maybe it's because just 40,000 turned up each day and went home at night, slept in their own bed, to return the following day. It was the first rock fest in the New York/New Jersey/Philly area and as such a really signficant event, even though history doesn't seem to credit it with much cultural heft. 110,000 people turned up over 3 days to the Atlantic City racetrack to see a fine, very diverse line-up of bands. Held from 1st to 3rd August 1969 in Atlantic City.
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