One vote. Guests welcome.

TenThousandMotels wrote on May 29^th, 2008 at 10:18am:


"Powder Ridge was an accident waiting to happen, and it happened."

Tickets were sold by mail at a price of $20 for the whole weekend. The announced line-up of musicians was stellar:

Day 1: Eric Burdon & War, Sly and the Family Stone, Delaney & Bonnie, Fleetwood Mac, Melanie, Mountain, J.F. Murphy and Free Flowing Salt, Allan Nichols, James Taylor
Day 2: Joe Cocker, Allman Brothers, Cactus, Little Richard, Van Morrison, Rhinoceros, Ten Wheel Drive, Jethro Tull, Tony Williams Lifetime, Zephyr
Day 3: Janis Joplin, Chuck Berry, Bloodrock, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Grand Funk Railroad, Richie Havens, John B. Sebastian, Spirit, Ten Years After

From Wkipedia
Drugs were openly sold and commonly consumed at the festival. The famed rock doctor William Abruzzi (also at Woodstock) was there to treat bad LSD trips, and said there were more bad trips at Powder Ridge per capita than at any other music festival he'd ever worked. He attributed some of the problems to the barrels of "electric water" that were available for free public consumption; people were invited to drop donations of drugs into these barrels, creating drug cocktails of unknown strength and composition.

William Manchester[6] writes:

One of the more sensational scenes, attested to by several witnesses, occurred in a small wood near some homes. A boy and a girl, both naked and approaching from different directions, met under the trees. On impulse they suddenly embraced. She dropped to her knees, he mounted her from behind, and after he had achieved his climax they parted—apparently without exchanging a word.

I voted other.  Here's why. 

I didn't see the Woodstock movie until college -- it just blew me away[and parts of it still do], especially Alvin Lee's performance, and then the watermelon that lands at his feet.  It changed my way of viewing rock.

Of the list posted, I would have been also tempted to vote for Live Aid.  I missed watching the show at the time because of work / school commitments, although I caught a minute or so of Albert Collins / Bo / Thorogood.   Later on, when I realized how great the line-up was, and realized what I had missed, I did not hesitate when the first Farm Aid show was announced for Champaign, Illinois a couple of months later.  Drove to the first Farm Aid, and have seen 6 more of them since, as well as Atlantic's 40th Anniversary, and the Welcome Home show in D.C.

But I voted other, because my answer would be the (stationary) Lollapalooza that has relocated to Grant Park, Chicago since 2005.  It is a pleasure to be able to park at my office and then see twelve hours of music, bands old and new, for approximately $70 per day.   

I voted for the one that I would have wanted to attend the most---Monterey. An amazing weekend.

I think Isle of Wight would have been my second favorite to attend.

Woodstock is history, of course.

The Newport Folk Festival of '65 was groundbreaking as well.

But it's Monterey for me...

This was kind of big in my day-

1983 US Festival
Schedule of Performers
in order of appearance:
[source: Festival program]


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Saturday May 28th:
Divinyls [11:20 - 11:50 am],
INXS [12:20 - 12:55 pm]
Wall of Voodoo [1:25 -2:40]
Oingo Boingo [2:40 - 3:40]
The English Beat [4:10 - 5:10]
Flock ofSeagulls [5:40 - 6:40]
Stray Cats [7:10 - 8:20]
Men At Work [8:50 -10:00]
The Clash [10:30 - midnight].


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Sunday May 29th:
Quiet Riot [12:10 - 12:50 pm]
Motley Crue [1:20 - 2:20]
Ozzy Osbourne [2:50 - 4:00]
Judas Priest [4:30 - 5:40]
Triumph [6:10 - 7:20]
Scorpions [7:55 - 9:10]
Van Halen [10:00 - midnight]


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Monday May 30th:
Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul [9:15 - 9:50 am]
Berlin [10:15 -10:50 am]
Quarterflash [11:15 - 11:50 am]
U2 [12:20 - 1:10 pm]
Missing Persons [1:40 - 2:40]
Pretenders [3:10 - 4:10]
Joe Walsh [4:40 - 5:50],
Stevie Nicks [6:20 - 7:30]
David Bowie [8:00 - 10:00 pm]


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Saturday June 4th: Country Day:
Riders In The Sky [11:30 am - 12:15 pm], Thrasher Brothers [12:45 - 1:25pm]
Ricky Skaggs [1:45 - 2:20]
Hank Williams Jr. [2:50 - 3:50]
Emmylou Harris & The Hot Band [4:35 - 5:35]
Waylon Jennings [6:10 - 7:10]
Alabama [7:45 - 9:15]
Willie Nelson [10:00 - midnight]

Pdog wrote on May 29^th, 2008 at 5:58pm:

I voted for Altamont, but not because it was the best, or the most comprehensive as far as the acts go. I voted for it rather because of what it did socially to the whole scene. It was the one festival where the balloon was fully burst on the whole fool minded notion of Flower Power and Free Love. It demonstrated more than any other rock and roll festival that hippiedom was a goddamned sham. Too bad really, because the ideology of the hippies, while incredibly naive and full of false promises, was at the very least fun for a time.

Altamont put a big stake through the heart of the whole peace, love, and flowers bullshit. The fact is that Woodstock '69 was the exception, and by no means the rule when it came to groovy, peaceful, flower power schtick. What started in LA with the rise of the Manson Family, ended 9 months later on the hills of Altamont Speedway. The veil was lifted on a false hope of hippiedom and the swinging 60's bowed out with pool cues and blood. Altamont underscored this sea change of societal shifts more than any other event. So to me Altamont is the most important festival, albeit for all the wrong reasons.



Riffy

left shoe shuffle wrote on May 29^th, 2008 at 7:06pm:



is that the kind of box she had?

Sioux wrote on May 29^th, 2008 at 10:33pm:


Fair enough Sioux. I tend to agree. Monterey had it all. The coming out party for Jimi with his iconic sacrifice of his guitar with the Ronson lighter fluid, a blistering set by The Who, Brian Jones in his minstrel getup holding court, and Otis Redding laying down some of the most serious soul that the 60's ever saw. A brilliant festival by all accounts,and as you so rightly pointed out, for all the right reasons.


Riffy