Newport Pop Festival

The Newport Pop Festival, held in Costa Mesa, California, August 3–4, 1968, was the first music concert ever to have more than 100,000 paid attendees.

There were two separate events staged in the late 1960s that are commonly referred to as the "Newport Pop Festival." The first was called the Newport Pop Festival, held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, the weekend of August 3–4, 1968. The second event was originally billed as "Newport 69," and was held over the three-day weekend of June 20–22, 1969 in Northridge, California at Devonshire Downs. In published writings over the last 40 years, this latter event has been referred to as the "Newport 69 Pop Festival," the "Newport Pop Festival 1969" and simply the "Newport Pop Festival." Subsequently, much confusion has been created over the years between the 1968 and 1969 events. Some of this confusion was generated by the participating musicians themselves who, later, in their interviews, kept getting the two events mixed up. The latter event was organized by Mark Robinson (age 25) who was one of the three promoters of the original Newport Pop Festival in 1968. The other two promoters of the 68 event were Gary R. Schmidt (age 26) and his father Al Schmidt. Al was not a rock n roller but an entrepreneural business man that helped with the money and licensing. There was a brief law suit between the two Schmidts and Robinson just prior to the "Newport 69" show which the Schmidts had declined to be involved in because of the cost of the acts, The entire band budget for the 68 show was under 50,000 dollars while Robinson paid Jimi Hendrix alone 50,000 dollars for the 69 event. This was an amount of money unheard of at that time for a rock act. The 68 show made money and the 69 show did not. The law suit was over trade names and the last few days before the 69 show they had to use disclaimers in advertising "not affiliated with the Newport Pop Festival" and they would not have been able to do a "Newport 70". show using that name.

The Newport Pop Festival 1968

The first Newport Pop Festival was held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, on the weekend of August 3–4, 1968. It is believed to have been the first pop music concert attended by more than 100,000 paying concertgoers.

The 1968 event was originally scheduled to be held inside the Orange County Fairgrounds in an outdoor pavilion. The fairgrounds are on Newport Boulevard just a short distance from Newport Beach, thus the name. The 1968 event advance ticket sales were triple what was expected and it became evident that there was no place inside the fairgrounds that a stage could be set up where even over 25,000 people could see the show let alone the near 100,000 now expected. In the last three days before the show it was moved to one of the adjoining parking lots of the fairgrounds. Fencing, staging, sanitation, and food concessions had to be organized in just a three day period. None of the commercial concessionaires were prepared for the event and they all ran out of food and drink half the way through the first day. Water was provided throughout the event by garden hoses from inside the fairgrounds but attendees had to give up their viewing spot to go for the water and provide their own containers. There were plenty of porta-pottys available at the rear of the hastily-assembled "grounds". There was no shade in the primary viewing area and partiers were sunburned. The weather was a typical August sunny Southern California day. Those without hotel reservations had no place to stay. Fortunately, City officials helped to alleviate some of the problems by designating a 32-acre (130,000 m²) area of the fairgrounds as an emergency camp site. They also brought in portable toilets and water tanks. This particular event inaugurated some of the problems rock festival promoters would face in the future.

Harvey "Humble Harve" Miller, one of Los Angeles Top-40 disc jockeys (on 93 KHJ-AM) was used by the promoters to promote the show and hosted the event with Wavy-Gravy. Wesco productions (West Coast productions) consisted of Mark Robinson, Gary Schmidt and Al Schmidt although Humble Harv was used on advertising for promotional purposes. Tom Neito of Scenic Sounds Productions also assisted in securing the fairgrounds and was paid a fee and received some promotional billing. Mark Robinson had been involved with Bob Blodget in staging a much smaller similar weekend festival in 1967 in Los Angeles.^[1] There never was a 2nd edition of this event and its prominence faded from memory until, on August 4, 2008, Jeff Overley penned a feature article for the Orange County Register ^[2] that commemorated the 40th anniversary of the event.

The big hits with the crowd were Tiny Tim, the Airplane, Country Joe, The Chambers Brothers, and Steppenwolf.

Mark Robinson went on to promote a similar show in 1969 with Jimi Hendrix called Newport 69, Al Schmidt continued in non rock 'n' roll business until he died aged 83 in the late 1990s, and Gary Schmidt entered the nightclub business and continued to promote smaller event throughout Northern California including two more festivals with attendance in the 25–30,000 range, The Labor Day Weekend Music and Arts Festival in Carson City, Nevada in 1972 and Super Sun Bust Summer of 1973 at the Eugene Speedway (Oregon). Schmidt also operated a well know rock venue nightclub, The Odyssey Room, in Sunnyvale California from 1969 through 1989.

The 1968 event, however, attracted a lot of media attention at the time. When Rolling Stone Magazine published an article on the event in their September 14, 1968 edition, they said:

Newport Pop Festival Drags on in Dust and Heat: Dead, Country Joe, Crosby, pie fight weekend's highlights

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An estimated 140,000 attended the first and probably the last Newport Pop Festival in California's Orange County Aug. 3-4, viewing, among others, Tiny Tim, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, Grateful Dead, Chambers Brothers, Charles Lloyd, James Cotton Blues Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and the Byrds.

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The festival was regarded musically successful but on other fronts rather less than pleasing. The performers appeared on a raised stage under a striped canopy, but the young crowds were left sitting or standing in a huge, flat, dusty-dry open field under a broiling sun. Refreshment and rest room facilities were less than adequate and the sound system was not powerful enough to carry the sound to everyone present.

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The highlight of the pop fest on the first day (Saturday) seemed to come when Country Joe closed the bill. The hour was late and Orange County officials were threatening to shut off the electricity when the band went on, finally relenting to give the band time for two songs. As they began their first, "1, 2, 3, 4, What Are We Fighting For," the approximately 40,000 young people still on hand rose as if one, cheering, hands held aloft in the "peace sign." During the second number, a long blues, even the cops on stage were grinning and adlibbing a moderate version of the boogaloo.

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The second day's climax came when David Crosby started a planned pie fight with Jefferson Airplane. In all, 250 cream pies flew back and forth . . . and the thousands of people present stormed the stage to join in.

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The musical line-up was an impressive one. Besides those already mentioned, bands appearing were Alice Cooper, Steppenwolf, Sonny and Cher, Canned Heat, Electric Flag, Butterfield Blues Band, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, Illinois Speed Press and Things To Come.

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But admission to the festival was $5.50 per day -- to sit in heat and dust. Most considered it another in the series of pop music shucks.

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The Newport Pop Festival -- which wasn't even held in Newport, but in Costa Mesa -- was produced by Humble Harvey Miller, one of L.A.'s Top-40 deejays, and Wesco Associates, basically the same coalition that staged a similarly uncomfortable weekend festival last summer in another Los Angeles dust bin.

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Among other highlights that concert-goers recall are when helicopters flew overhead, dropping flowers on the audience. And, on Sunday, Sonny and Cher arrived by helicopter and were later booed off the stage.^[3]

Bands Performing at the Festival:

Saturday, August 3, 1968

Alice Cooper, Canned Heat, Chambers Brothers, Charles Lloyd Quartet, Country Joe and the Fish, Electric Flag, James Cotton Blues Band, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sonny & Cher, Steppenwolf, Tiny Tim.

During the Charles Lloyd Quartet set, Lee Michaels and Frosty began playing on an alternate stage at the rear of the crowd. Most of the attendees turned around and watched them as the Lloyd music was not in the style they had come to listen to.

Sunday, August 4, 1968

Blue Cheer, Eric Burdon & The Animals, Grateful Dead, Illinois Speed Press, Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Byrds, Things to Come.

Bands that may have performed at the festival Though Big Brother and the Holding Company, Lovin' Spoonful, Rhinoceros, Sky Pilot, and The Turtles were not listed on the official poster for the event, there is published evidence that indicates that these bands may have played at the festival.

It is believed that the 1969 festival was intended to be the successor to the Orange County event, hoping to capitalize on the brand name and market momentum generated in 1968. Unfortunately, this move of venue was necessary because the 1968 event had fallen in disfavor with the local community leaders. Three days after the 1968 event, the Costa Mesa City Council vowed to prevent a Newport Pop Festival encore. "To say that we would not like it back here would be the understatement of the year," Costa Mesa Mayor Alvin Pinkley was quoted as saying.^[2]

The "Newport 69" Festival

Attended by 150,000 fans, the festival on June 20–22, 1969 was the largest pop concert up to that time and is considered the more famous of the two Newport Pop Festivals, possibly because of the appearance of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which got top billing at the venue.^[4] Devonshire Downs was a racetrack at that time but now is part of the North Campus for California State University at Northridge.

Friday, June 20, 1969

Albert King, Edwin Hawkins Singers, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Joe Cocker, Southwind, Spirit and Taj Mahal.

Saturday, June 21, 1969

Albert Collins, Brenton Wood, Buffy Ste. Marie, Charity, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Eric Burdon, Friends of Distinction, Jethro Tull, Lee Michaels, Love, Steppenwolf and Sweetwater.

Sunday, June 22, 1969

Booker T & the MGs, Chambers Brothers, Flock, The Grass Roots, Johnny Winter, Marvin Gaye, Mother Earth, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles, Eric Burdon, and Mother Earth (jam), Poco (formerly Pogo), The Byrds, The Rascals and Three Dog Night .

Footnotes

1. ^ Gary Schmidt, rock promoter and pop festival organizer extraordinare - Susan Evans, Associate Editor Tahoe Reader - June 1991
2. ^ ^{a b} 40 years later, Newport Pop Festival reverberates - Orange County Register, Santa Ana, California, August 4, 2008
3. ^ Readers reminisce about Newport Pop Festival of 1968 - Orange County Register, Santa Ana, California, August 8, 2008
4. ^ Hendrix at Devonshire Downs - LA Observed, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 2007

Janis Joplin jammed with Hendricks, Buddy Miles and Eric Burdon on Sunday.

External links

• Newport '69, a retrospect by Jim A. Beardsley
• Newport Pop poster #1
• Newport Pop poster #2
• Newport Pop poster #3

Coordinates: 37°54′45″N 122°36′30″W / 37.91258°N 122.60844°W / 37.91258; -122.60844