Here's a comment from one person that was there. As you can tell by his message, it was an experience that he will not forget.
"I was at Bull island ,drove all night got there tired as hell stayed
a
couple hours and drove back to Moline ILL. Was an experience that I
will
take to the grave, was 19 years old.
B. Graham"
Thanks for your email! A concert of this size should not be forgotten, so if you were there leave a comment about your experiences.
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37 comments:
We are trying to find out the name of the producer. I know they were doing video of the concert and we would like to try to find out who has the tapes. I know the dude got sued for years afterward. Hell, he may need the money. I remember him on stage saying that he would give us a party if it cost him every cent he had. He did. It didn't come off the way he planed it but it wasn't his fault. "The man" did evrything they could to fuck him up. They stopped trucks with equipment and supplies and deliveries of all kinds. The bands that did play should be thanked for their participation and some of the others that pussied out should get a big finger for leaving 450,000 people in a field.
I went... what a mess. We drove my friend's 61 Ford Fairlane from Northern Virginia. Traffic was nuts... the sanitation and water was way under estimated. I remember seeing Foghat who were amazing and Albert King, who also was amazing. The time between acts was too long and we had to get back so we left early. Anyone else remember Foghat & Albert King?
Yep, Bull Island was a GREAT TIME for fun and music. Still can remember the long walk down the gravel and sand road to the concert site. yep , I bought a ticket got in there around dark on Friday night. I rember stopping aling the way there to ask directions and when we pulled up to the service station and rolled down the window the people just pointed down the road.
Wha can forget when Fog Hat opened with " I Just Wanna Make Love To You", Lomesome Dave was Jamming. Damn noticed that he passed away afew years ago. That was before anyone knew who Fog Hat was, way before " Fool for The City and Slow Ride"
Black Oak Played Ole Uncle Alijha or something like that, that was about the same time the food trailer was on fire and had to go see where all those traces where coming from shooting into the air from the aluminum skin on the trailer as it burned.
We had about fifteen people that went together and we sat under the far left scafold as ther was three sets of scafolds with lights atop them. Still remember the guy that stripped off naked one night and climed up one of the sets of scafolds and the other set of lights were put on him. I remember Chech and Chong mid day preformance and of course the all girl band Fannie.
Yep all of us late hippies are now getting close to being " Senior Citizens" I sure don't feel like it. but I gotta say " It's Been a Long Time Since I Rock and Rolled" hey that was Fog Hat's First Album. Young Folks now don't even know what is an album.
One of the persons that put on the Bull Island Concert is now a Realtor and Acuctioneer in Paducah, KY if he is the same Robert Alexander from Evansville which I think he is. Can't blame the guy for trying and they just about pulled off a great concert if it had not been for a few bad apples.
Bull Island 1972 was a great time to be a senior in high school. learned a lot that year.
Here to all the Bull Islanders
Hi, Yeah I was there with what I was told were several hundred thousand others. I went with the whole crew, all my buddies, we had just graduated High School. We had three carloads of us , we arrived at separate times but found each other day 1. We had a huge tent, met a dude named Vic who was older. He said he quite his job as a teacher & just traveled the country working odd jobs, we were impressed. He was our impression of a real freak & we were jelous. I met a chick from Tampa there & visited her a few times, talked on the phone & wrote letters to her for years. I recall nothing but good here, & believe me I saw no harm to anyone, the burned trucks may have been a bad thing but....all were young & dumb then. We ofcourse had the greatest time imaginable, Id do again now in a second-no probelm. I'd even organize & help pay for it if someone would help me do the leg work. OK I could go on for hours but I wont this time. Yeah I was there & it was great. Lets do it again
I was there! There were four of us from the Quad Cities. We had to walk the last ten miles and wait. Only one of us had a ticket and they weren't selling anymore. There was a guy on horseback holding off thousands of people that wanted in. We finally stormed the gate and we all got in. Albert King was great! My memory is a bit foggy but I do remember seeing this comedy act during a rainstorm that knocked us out! Turned out to be Cheech and Cong. Do to the lack of facilities we pissed in a wine bottle. Woke up and the bottle was empty and I always wondered who the poor soul was that drank it. There were some real stoners there. We had a great time but we all agreed that we would never do it again!
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i remember albert king and foghat. it seems like i remember laying in the rain soak field hearing cheech and chong.
i was 18 and me and a few carloads of friends went to bull island from lebanon, tn. i remember the closest we could park was in griffen, indiana and then we walked for what seemed like miles and miles. 12?
we finally got to bull island and i will never forget seeing all of the hippies. they would band together in large groups and charge through the cornfilds to get into the festival for free. (we had tickets) and i remember security guards on horses charging in after the hippies trying to get in. they had some king of billie clubs, and i remember one guard on a horse comming back out of the corn field dragging a hippie by the hair and then dropping.
also, when we were leaving. people would jump on cars of others leaving to catch a ride to their car. when we got to our car, a guy got on our roof to catch a ride. i was driving, and so tired and wasted from the days of drugs, i forgot about him being on my car until i was going 75 mph down the interstate and someone in the car said something about him. we pulled over to check and he was gone. till this day i don't know what happened to him. i like to think that when he saw the car speeding up (on the exit leading to the interstate) he jumped off.
wow. and the stories about the drugs...i could go on and on. take care brothers
I was there dude, and still have the original flyer, ticket, and pix!
My funniest story about the festival is that lots of people were swimming in the river (naked and otherwise)when a giant water moccasin came swimming past. All the freaks were cool as cucumbers and remained still until it past and then returned to frollicking.
About a minute late a huge turd came floating past and they all started scrambling out of the water like it was radioactive.
I remember Mike's Tent Tested Acid and Masculine, this was like the OD tent's Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
I never saw much pot in my life, before or since.
I was there dude and still have the original flyer, ticket, and pix.
The concert was produced by Alexander & Duncan Productions
PO Box 5251
Evansville Indiana
47715
I have never seen so much pot in life, before or since.
One of the funniest stories I have about that festival is a bunch of freaks were swimming in the river (naked and otherwise) when a large black water moccasin came swimming and past, they all remained still and cool until it was gone and then resumed frolicking. A minute later a huge turd came floating past and they scrambled out of the water like some one had yelled shaek! I laughed my ass off!
Cheech and Chong performed with Canned Heat, Black Oak Arkansas, And I'll never forget Ted Nugent starting out playing as we were pulling out Sunday morning.
Good Times!
Logan,
I tracked down a Realtor in Paducah, he is not the one. Got any more info on who may be the persons, I will try to track them down. I would love to see those & produce anything they may have had.
As a side note with a little "help from my friends" we could do this again! Not all the good bands are gone.
Trying to remember......there was this guy in a diaper selling "electric milk". This was an inside joke for our group for years. I too remember the night the vendor trailers were burning. We were right in front of them, turn around to watch stage and then back to watch fire. The most disturbing memory to me was coming in and seeing a tractor forcing kids off the road into the water.
Would like to remember more, but you know my memories are a
bit fuzzy at best.
Hello, I was sort of there but not really. In 1972 I was eleven years old. My Grandparents owned land that was just east of Bull Island. On that Saturday my parents decided to go up to my Grandparents to see all the excitement I guess. My Dad and his buddy went over to the island once we arrived. I remeber on the way it took for ever to get to there house. The road there was packed. I remeber my brother and I laughing at a VW van we saw that was painted up with flowers and peace signs. We thought it was cool. I remember all of the people walking and sitting on the cars smoking ("I know now what I didnt know then"). When we got to my Grandparents my Grandfather was sitting on his front pourch with his shot gun (I have it now) garding his garden and melon patch. I remeber sitting on the porch with him listening to the music we could hear (not sure who was on stage but it was cool). I remeber watching all the helicopters that were flying around over the fest. I wish I would have been old enough to have gone in but I did get to hear some of it. I cant belive how many people over the years that I have asked dont know any thing about it. I would love to see pictures if any one can tell me were to see them at!
OMG. I am telling my daughter stories of my past and decided to Google Bull Island to see if there was anything out there on the Festival to give her a feel for what it was like. I had no idea there was so much information on it. I am really enjoying reading the reminiscing of all who were there.
Well my story is this.
I wanted to go to Woodstock but missed it. I lived in a household of good parental control. Now I understand but at that time it was SUPPRESSION!! I was 18 for crying out loud! I asked permission to go to Woodstock and then to Bull Island and of course was told NO! So I snuck out in the middle of the night and went to Bull Island anyway. A friend picked me up in his blue Malibu. I remember the long lines and the traffic; locals sitting in lawn chairs in their front yards “renting parking spaces”. I borrowed my little brother’s sleeping bag and promptly lost it. I somehow found a Space blanket which was a 6 ft X 6ft silver Mylar sheet. I put it on over me, held it down with my hands and scared a lot of folks because I looked like a silver ghost. And oh yes…there were more drugs than I had ever seen. I was quite amused by the vans with the doors open and cardboard signs listing the vender’s wares. There was acid, Mescaline, Marijuana, Hash, Quaaludes, etc. I bought some Blue Cheer acid. And some pot. I had a great time playing in the river and partied with some folks who had a Winnebago; watching some of the stage shows from its roof. I don’t remember eating or drinking water. But must have.
When I got home I was in big trouble!!!! I got grounded of course for a month, but it was worth it. I had a great time! I will never forget it!
Bob Alexander and ? I cannot recall the other guy's name right now promoted the show.
I was 15/ 16 years old. I lived right by the race track in Chandler where the festival was originally planned to take place. A lot of people showed up there not knowing it had been moved. I met so many great guys from all over the country. My mom told me I could not go to Bull Island, but I left her a note saying I would see her in a few days and went with a car load of friends anyway. It is something that I will never forget the rest of my life although my memories are very foggy! We got in because we said we were there to work at a concessation stand. We parked and set up our tent and proceeded to get higher than we were all ready were. People were everywhere. We camped by the helicopter pad and it was constantly coming and going with people on stretchers from overdoses mainly. The drugs were being peddaled non-stop all along a walk way beside our tent...instead of hamburgers, hotdogs and ice cold sodas it was a constant barrage of yelling herion, lsd, pot, hashish... whatever they had to sell they announced it and paraded up and down the hill all day everyday. There were people shooting up all around us and I watched because I had never done it or seen anyone do that before. There were no bathroom facilities that I could find, no food, no water. I vaguely recall hearing some music and thinking I wish I knew they were going to be here. After awhile it was just music being broadcast over the speakers because most of the bands had cancelled out. There were animals of all kinds including monkeys. I saw babies running around naked and seemed like they were on their own. I did go to a restuarant later in Griffin, IN and the people there were very kind and offered me food because I had no money.
I went to Soda Pop with two carloads of friends from Tennessee. About two months ago I reconnected with the friend I rode with for the first time in about 15 years. It got me to thinking about the festival and it got me writing seriously for the first time in several years. The festival made a huge impression on me and most of those in our group. I've been amazed at how much interest in the festival is still there. I've come across a lot of inaccuracies. The Wikipedia article is questionable, and as far as I can tell, there is only one person who has contributed to it. I can't criticize the guy who wrote it too much because memory is notoriously unreliable, but from what I've read from other comments I've seen elsewhere, anyone who is interested should go to Wikipedia and offer additions, corrections and emphasis. I know Soda Pop didn't change the course of history, but any time a quarter million people (from what I have learned over the years, it's a fairly accurate figure) spontaneously converge on anything, it has some kind of importance and is worth remembering. It wasn't Woodstock, but nothing could be. It's just that one of the many things I find important about Soda Pop is that all of the bad things that happened amidst the good things kind of signaled the final nail in the coffin of the whole counterculture movement of peace and love. The first nail appeared in 1968 during the "Summer of Love" when tens of thousands descended on Haight-Ashbury to break the spell. At any rate, back to Soda Pop. I've read a lot lately on the internet, and most of what I've read jives with my memory. One of the things that amazed me from the moment I arrived at the festival was how the chaos and anarchy of thousands of people coming together resulted in a spontaneous creation of a surprisingly orderly city -- people created streets and intersections and residential districts and business districts (one for drugs and a separate one for everything else) without anyone in charge to tell them how to do it. It told me something important about what humans can accomplish when left to their best instincts and judgement. We made our festival city work, for the most part. And for the most part everybody seemed to have a good time and celebrate our sense of community. Sure, planning for food and water and restrooms were a disaster, but that wasn't the fault of the concertgoers. And the crowd didn't have any control over the overpriced and inadequate food and drink, either. Despite all this, I had a great time, and I had an experience that I will never forget. I didn't hear a lot of the music I went to hear, but the music I heard is burned in my memory. I met some very interesting people (including the guy with an M-14, a pistol and ammo belts who was going after somebody who cheated him on a big drug deal), enjoyed the progress of the days in a beautiful corner of nature, and saw the best and worst in human beings. Peace and love, for what that's worth any more.
Wow I remember a great time drugs sex and rock and roll.We got to the little village around 1 am and parked our brand new bright orange rented chevy van behind a gas station by that long road that led into the festival. Within 30 minutes we met these people from Mississipi and this hot babe with an incredible smile and sexy southern accent gave me 2 black beauties.The next thing I new I was walking down that road with the girl for miles probably 2 hours and we came to the gate and we bought tickets for $25.00. I still have mine. Then we walked probably 3 more miles or so it seemed right to the stage. There were probably 10,000 people spread out over the whole place and they were still building the stage.The girl and I went seperate directions and I never saw her again. I was only out of the Marine Corps for about a year and was in excellent shape so I ran about 4 miles back through the gate to go find my buddies. Luckily for me a guy on a dirt bike stopped and gave me a ride back to the village to where we parked the van.I was just in time as my friends were starting to walk in down that long ass dirt road and I told them fuck walking let's take the van.I drove us down the road and we picked passengers along the way.The next thing you know this brand new 1972 orange chevy van had about 10 or so people on the roof and another 10 or so inside. The roof was caving in and everyone was wasted. We were yelling and screaming and getting very stoned going down this road.Like a big city traffic jam,you could easily walk faster.People were sitting in front of there houses with shot guns looking like they would shoot anyone who stepped on there land. We approached the gate and they were letting in any vehichle if anyone could show a ticket. I showed the guy my ticket but all my friends wanted to run over the hill past security through the cornfield and I picked them all back up about a third of a mile down the road by the cornfield. they all jumped back in and on the van as we proceded toward the stage.We got to a point still about a mile or so from the stage where we could go no further but one of us got the bright idea of asking people to move because we told them we were from the acid test tent.(Yeah Right)We kept using that same old bullshit line and people were actually moving there cars and tents for us to get through.(Thanks All) Eventually we parked about 100 yards from the stage.Ravi Shankar Canned Heat Richie Havens were among the 1st bands to play and I was right there when the Guitar player from Canned Heat blew up his amp and a forklift put up a brand new Marshall stack and they Played everything they knew.I went back to the van and Benny,Danny Cistulli and I were sitting on the roof of this orange chevy van.We were watching Albert King,Foghat (OH MAYBELINE) Black Oak Arkansas, The Eagles.Parked next to us about 75 feet away 3 vans from Rhode Island were selling THC yelling Tich Tich Hey get your THC Here like they were selling hot dogs at a baseball game. All weekend long they were yellin and sellin. Saturday afternoon this kid comes up to the van sellin ounce's of weed for $12.00 out of a big burlap bag. He had pounds and pounds. I bought a bag and told the kid to stay right there because I wanted a couple more. My fiend Danny pinched a joint or 2 out of the bag and Benny sold it off the roof on the other side of the van for $15.00. To make a long story short We bought and sold about 400 ounces off the kid and made $3.00 profit and a joint or 2 from each bag.If the kid walked around the van he would have put us out of buissness but we sold everything he had.Later that night I remember Flash was playing( they had the original keyboard player and guitarist from Yes).Tony Kaye and Peter Banks. While they were playing one of the food trailers blew up They were tractor trailers with kitchen inside and windows on the side. Flames went way up in the air hundreds of feet. How did no one get killed? Flash stopped playing and after a while they came back out and before they continued made sure to let it be known they had nothing to do with the explosion.The next morning Benny woke me up I was sleeping in the drivers seat and he was in the passenger seat. Cheech and Chong came on in the middle of the night and It rained but when Benny woke me up around 6 am He said "Frankie Frankie check it out there's a dead guy out here. So I leaned over and looked out the passenger side window and there was a guy Face Down in the mud puddle with water over his ears. I looked at Benny and said Yep he's dead.There was no movement no air bubbles and his head was submerged in the mud puddle. So we lit up a joint and were talking about going outside and getting him out of the water and where we were going to take him away and about 2/3s of the way through the joint the guy got up and staggered away. He wasn't dead and we have been laughing about that for about 36 years? Wow thank God he was alive. We went up to see the damage At the food truck fire about 8 am and there was a pile of pork and bens a couple of feet deep and about 20 ft in circle.A huge crowd was standing around yelling,screaming and cheering so we went to see what they were cheering about and some guy was porking his girlfriend in the pile of pork and beans. I don't think I ever laughed so hard in all my life.We were laughing so hard we were cryin'. All in All it is still the most fun I ever had in my life. From the minute we got there until we left. I'm 57 now and would do it all over again. 2 of my friends I went with that weekend have died God Bless Burt Lamerioux and Danny Cistulli but Benny and I still are buddies and we still laugh at the great times we had.
We drove up to the Soda Pop Festival from Nashville, Tenn. (Vanderbilt University). There was four or five of us in this nasty light blue Gremlin. We were wasted for three days. I only remember Foghat and Cheech and Chong when it was raining. We were using a biker (we thought he was dead) for a mattress. The girl I was with changed her underwear out in the open every day. When we left the festival on a dirt road we let some people ride on the hood of the car. It forced the front end down and we hit a tree stump with one of the car's cross members. The cross member cut into the oil pan and we lost all the engine oil on the road. A mechanic at a nearby truck station fixed it for us for $200.00. We didn't have enough money so a drug dealer gave us the rest. It was a miserable night. I drove everybody back to Nashville wasted.
was there 4 day right in front of the stage dont remember much was so dam high but would do it again at age 55 and someone should make a movie about it and would like to buy some picture of bull island lost all mine herschelgossett@yahoo.com
Fog Hat is playing at the Beverly Art Center in Chicago this June 2009
if anyone is interested.........
Dave
I was 22 when I went to the concert .My sister lived in Greencastle,Indiana .I was from back in the Northeast .She let me off at the freeway at the road leading to the concert .There was vehicles of all types parked there and for miles and miles toward were the concert was at .I remember seeing all the venders selling all types of paraphernailia related to smoking pot and hashi plus it seemed there were several miles of vendors all types of pot and hashish plus closer and closer to the cstage people selling mescaline and LSD .Then further up closer to the stage there were a few people shouting Cocaine,Cocaine .I can only remember 2 guys that were together shouting Skag,Skag [China White].
I play guitar and played back then too .I had the same white Les Paul custom that I still have .I met Greg Allman within a few hundred yards of the stage .Dwayne had died before then to the best of my memory .I had known Dwayne also and had played with Greg and Dwayne before .I did not have my guitar with me .Greg had Dwaynes white Les Paul custom just like I owned also .He let me use Dwaynes guitar which was tuned in open E for playing slide just like the way Dwayne played a lot of his song .I played slide also a lot back then too .Anyway I thought for some reason all these years that I had walked 17 miles until I got to the stage to play .I just recently [today]did a search for the Bull Island Festival .In several of the articles it said cars were backed up for 20 miles leading to were the satge was at.I do not remember it being called [The Erie Canal soda pop festival] Maybe my memory is bad but it seems like I remember the festival being called [The Orange Soda Pop festival ] probably just my bad memory .What I remember most was seeing as far as my human eye could see nothing but people for miles and miles back away from the stage .That was the largest crowd I had ever played for up until then and still yet played in later years to come also.I played with several well known bands there and several well known bands before and after the festival for yaers to come later. My memory is a little vague about every thing that I personally experienced there.Mainly because of how many years back ,that was.
lil Dickey
What a weekend!
I had finished my sophmore year when my brother who was hitchhiking back from California arranged a ride for me from Cleveland Ohio. I remember walking a long way and coming to a river were everybody was skinny dipping. This was quite an event for me at the time! A gorgeous fully tanned woman took pity on me and helped me survive...
A number of boats were coming in close taking pictures and one ran over a swimmer. The crowd tried to flip the boat but the driver escaped. A rescue boat made its way across the river to help the person. Does any one remember this?
Anyway I somehow managed to find my brother admist all the people. He was very close to the stage with a large group he had met.
I spent most of the concert in a trance meeting lots of wonderful people that I will never recognize. For me it was the people. I really only remember the Cheech and Chong and Canned Heat performances
That festival really affected me for the better. Love that you are trying capture it.
ps: The next large festival I went to was Watkins Glenn (1974) I was well prepared for that!
I was there, Albert King was impressive as was foghat, Cheech and Chong pereformed at night if I remember right, sniffing each others butts! I t was funny when I was stoned. I didnt sleep for a couple of days and most of my memories are snapshots of events. i found a couple of friends there I didnt even know were going, it was pretty wild among that big group.
Nothing quite like the site of Ted Nugent in a leopard loincloth jumping around on stacks of amps at daybreak. That in contrast to the marginally received peaceful meditative offering of Ravi Shankar were my two most positive memories of Bull Island...there were other memories, however hazy which are probably best kept to myself ;)
I was there. About 4 other guys and I drove my VW van from SE Arkansas up there. Somehow, sheer will, determination or stupidty, we drove that van all the way to the site. Parked it to stage right, about 100 yds back. Woke up one morning to find a long trench latrine had been dug and piles of plywood for outhouses had been dumped. The wood was 'requisitioned' for fires around the site.
I sure would like to find some more pics of the event.
There are lots of good pictures at http://www.billbloodworth.com/html/bullisland.html CHECK IT OUT!
The guy (Dave) that claims he was there and played with the Allman brothers is a little "teched" or something because I sure as hell don't remember the Allman Brothers playing, and neither did the Evansville Courier, who writes...."Among no-shows were Rod Stewart and the Faces, Black Sabbath and the Allman Brothers. Joe Cocker's people arrived Friday, took a look at the crowd, and doubled their performance price, which was refused. They departed".
I was there with my best friend Darryl Meyers (FU) We came from Springfield Mo. with 2 tickets and we picked up 2 others who we hid in the trunk to get in. We drove my 62 chevy- belair- right up to about 200 yards from the stage -near the music sound board-we spent 3 days listening to music and getting high-sure it was crazy and there were a few incidents that occured but that can be expected when 200-300 hundred thousand get together.After the concert we drove to Glacier National Park for a week in the wilderness with the drugs we had left. It's an experience I will never forget
to add to my original blog --every time I hear SLOW RIDE by FOGHAT I revert back to those 3 days back in 1972 and it brings a big smile and great memories that I was involved in something that many will never get to experience in their life and it makes me greatful to have lived thru such an unusually time in our history
I was there. I'm now 54 years old and I still remember Bull Island.
I was 17, a young black teen in total awe of the spectacle that I witnessed those 3 days. From the massive orgy on the river bank in the mud to the Green Acid overdoses that were claimed to be occuring, though most of us think it was a skit by Cheez and Chong, I saw it all.
Henry
frankzusedcars@yahoo.com
Me and two of my buddies from Clay County Illinois parked on the highway and walked in on (I think) Friday afternoon. We saw the naked people in the river and heard about the person who was ran over by one of the boats. We were delighted because everywhere you looked pot and other drugs were being sold and traded. We had money but no food, water, or blankets (at 17 you don't need that stuff) but soon found other Clay County people that had set up camp around a yellow Ford van and our fellow freaks were our salvation because they had supplies. I remember the attack of the food concession trucks and the burning aftermath. I saw Canned Heat and Black Oak Arkansas on the stage but everything else is just a haze except the last day and the ride we hitched on the back of a pick-up truck while drinking a couple of beers. It was great but these days I am forced to behave but I am glad to find that the event is remembered by others.
I have been watching the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and it made me think of Bull Island. Me and two of my buddies from Cincinnati hitch hiked all night on Friday to get to the festival. Funny thing was we were headed to Griffith, IN in Northern Indiana because that is where we thought the festival was being held. We got picked up in Indianapolis by some people going and lucky for us they told us it was in Griffin, IN and gave us a ride to the right place.
They parked on the side of I-64 and we walked for a long time to get to the field. Once there, we crashed for a few hours until day light and then found a spot to settle for the rest of the weekend.
All three of us were 17 at the time. We had no food, only the clothes on our back, and very little money - but we had the time of our lives. The only food we ate was what we got at the Red Cross Canteen.
The Bull Island Rock Festival does not get the recognition it should - I think because it was held in the Midwest and not on the East Coast or West Coast. They should do a 40th anniversary show about Bull Island in 2012.
I also was watching all the stuff on the Woodstock anniversary, and all the memories of The Bull Island Rock Festival came swarming back. So I googled it and all this stuff came up. Some stuff I remembered some I did not...I also did not remember it being called The soda pop festival.
I lived in Chicago at the time,my husband and I had just bought a new Minolta SLR camera (I still have that camera can you believe?)I don't remember how we found out about the Rock Festival but we headed off for a photo adventure. I thought I was younger but I was 23 at the time. I remember getting there in our 69 VW camper van, and the first day we got there on Friday it was all backed up and people were abandoning their vehicles and were walking in so we did too.The others said you could not get vehicles in. So we walked miles in and then realized, we needed to go back and get the Van so we would have somewhere to stay and have food & shelter, so we walked all the way back out and then by that time we were able to drive in. Most people we not that prepared, and I remember trading food for getting high. I remember the time when the food trucks came in and everyone attacked them... I have pictures of all kinds of food and stuff being thrown in the crowds. I have some really good pictures as I was first learning to use my camera, so I took quite a few...I remember alot of bands cancelled but I do remember Rabi Shankar.. and I remember them announcing all the bad drugs and overdoses, and lots of skinny dipping and a very heavy downpoor I believe was on Sat. But because we had our Van we had shelter unlike most. I also remember it was wall to wall people and very hard to find spots to relieve ones self when we were away from the van. I remember after they looted the trucks, later that night they started them on fire and they just burned. They could get in to do anything about it. I am going to have to find those pictures to help bring back more of the memories. I know there was alot of drugs available and I think I remember drinking, smoking pot and I think we smoked some opium. But because of the warnings we did't do anything else.I know we met alot of poeple and had a blast...Seems I remember on the way out we gave others rides back out to the highway...and I remember them announcing a couple people died of overdoses and bad drugs and them taking them away in helicopers...But mostly good memories...and sadly I remember lots of garbage left behind...
I tried to get tickets because,though only 17 I was a liberated juvenile do to the fact that my family lawyer fixed it. I was "Component Supervisor for Emergency Drug Rescue"-known by everyone as ACID rescue. We called everyone. Runaround, of course. I went anyway(let's face it; it was only an excuse anyway). We had tickets, but we had to pay the huge biker guys who had the road we took blocked. Very few of the musical groups got to play due to the obvious problem when one mixes water with extreme amounts of electricity. A number of people mentioned Cheech and Chong. They were "darned" funny,but they had to run from the rain just after the start of the song "Nail My Pecker to a Tree". Shame, the song was really "darned" funny. Then the truck fires started, so we got people begging from the stage to stop the projectile fireworks. Some did not like this. I guess burning trucks are just bigger fireworks. No, the bikers had no status execpt being BIG. Sorry, Foghat fans but I don't remember them. I did conduct some field research. The windowpane was clean. Perhaps Foghat got lost in "the fog of research". I must say that those who were impressed by Albert King have good taste. I don't know if he was always that good or if it was just his night to cut loose. Knowing a bit about his godson Stevie Ray Vaughn, I just think he was awesome, I doubt he knew how not to be. Why did no one mention the HUGE field of human feces? I'm glad I was younger then and didn't miss a step. A friend of my mother's was not so lucky and got typhoid fever. The entire parking area our car was in all seemed to have lost their batteries. Helpful tow trucks and service stations were well stocked with batteries. Lucky us! I have been to three rock festivals(Sedalia Missouri the next year and Watkin's Glen the year after that). Bull's Island was a disaster. This may have to do with the fact that that it was meant to be elsewhere. The locals blocked it. So-it was put on an island belonging to one state but with land acess only from another. I could go on, but I bet you get the idea. Former Doc.
As I had posted before, I had just purchased a Milnolta SLR camera , which I still have, right before we took off to go to Bull Island. I took pictures and was able to catch the crowds, skinny dippers in the river, people peddling the pot and the looting of the trucks, they are so cool to see, it brings back many memories,. I hope someone organizes a reunion, I would like to share the pictures, although I only wish there were more, I wonder if anyone did a Video???
I am CRACKING up at "ppresleyy"'s comment/story about the guy on the roof of the car. Love it :-)
I was a Senior in high school, and boy did I get my eyes opened wide. We spent the night on Ind St Road 64 in the middle of a traffic jam...not on the side, but in the middle! We circled the wagons, built a campfire listened to Ravi Shankar, Canned Heat, and woke up to Cheech & Chong. Apparently Dave weasn't there either...
One image that sticks in my mind was the road lined with all sorts of mushrooms,chocolate mescaline, etc. Quite an experience for a country boy...
Among some of the murkier memories from Bull Island, giving Albert King a ride on the running board of my '69 VW Bug...running out of gas later. and pushing the car the last 100 yards to the gas station...hearing Ravi Shankar very early Sat morning playing "a very beautiful morning raga"...and wondering how I got myself into this mess...
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