The legendary three-day Monterey International Pop Festival took place 50 years ago at the Monterey Fairgrounds in California, laying the groundwork for both the “Summer of Love” and all music festivals that followed in the ensuing years, and this summer, the landmark half-century anniversary will be honored with a revival of the festival at the very same place and the very same dates as the original.
Although the full lineup will not be announced until this Monday, April 17, in a new piece from The New York Times, there are a number of artists listed, including Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, who played the original festival in 1967 and will return this year with The Terrapin Family Band, My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James, Gary Clark Jr., Norah Jones, Father John Misty, Kurt Vile, Jack Johnson and The Head and the Heart. The Times article also features a discussion with Lou Adler, who helped create the first Monterey Pop festival and also has a hand in this year’s 50th anniversary revival.
The original Monterey Pop Festival gathered some of the top musicians of the era, including the aforementioned Dead, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas & The Papas, Ravi Shankar and more.
“It was a great hang,” Lesh tells the Times, also noting a memory when Hendrix “sheepishly” asked if he could sit in on bass during a backstage jam at the festival. “Everybody was there — everybody but the Beatles.”
This year’s Monterey International Pop Festival will take place in Monterey, CA, on June 16–18. The full lineup will be available on April 17.
No Comments comments associated with this post