No doobies visible here but I think their is a glimpse or two of the hot bouncing hippie chicks nipples YouTube - Grateful Dead: Sugar Magnolia
What was it like? Unforgettable. My sleeping bag may still be there. Incredible line-up. Fireworks in midst of a twilight thunderstorm and great music. Long time ago, but I'm glad I had that ultimate 60s musical experience.
40 years ago! I remember it, but not so well. It was the pot brownies, I am sure. Remember the times: Vietnam war going full steam ahead under psychopath Nixon (600,000 deaths in Cambodia in 3,500 bombing sorties), assassinations of Bobby and Martin, 1968 Democratic National Convention police riot (I was there), trial of Chicago Seven, antiwar movement, riots in inner cities, anti-youth, anti-hippie sentiments of cops, and more. Against the backdrop of these seeming end-times was Woodstock, and it's smaller clone--The New Orleans Pop Festival ("deep down in Loo'siana close to New Orleans..." That's why our group hid the weed in scrumptious buttery brownies. By diligent product testing beforehand, we we told by the baker "Eat 2.5 of them." The crowds were good-sized but thankfully not Woodstockian. We got a good spot fairly close to the stage. And the music flowed. Bands that we barely knew were amplified, not only by the big stage amps, but also through the lens of the media coverage of Woodstock. If Woodstock was the big one of 9.5 on the musical Richter scale, the Louisiana longhairs in Gonzales experienced a powerful aftershock. There were some band no-shows, but the musicians who were there made the absentees no matter. We--everybody--needed that event so badly. Blissed-out longhairs, bikers, peace demonstrators, students, poets, intellectuals, the merely-curious, and the generally hip were able to bond to the powerful currents of anti-establishment, anti-war, alternative living that had been spawned in reaction to the same anti-life forces that we are still struggling against today. It was a set of great performances, not only by our pied pipers -- those wonderfully cool and legendary musicians on stage wailing and rocking for us-- but a performance by us for ourselves (and for the wide-eyed straight media coverage of the afternoon news boys). We lived, if only for a few hours and in the strong shadow of our bigger brother event in upstate New York, the possibility of time and life outside of the gears of the grinding machine of war and oppression. It was a weekend of brothers and sisters in a liminal state, a temporary autonomous zone, a space of possibility that is always there. Stephen Duplantier Now living in Costa Rica
I was 16 in 1969 when my sister, my cousin and I talked my mom into letting us go to the New Orleans Pop Festival. She would only let us go if our Dad came with us. It was right after Hurricane Camille hit Gulf Port Ms. We left Pensacola at midnight on Thursday night I think. A male friend of ours drove my Dad's car with my sister, cousin and I. This was before I-10 was completed all the way and we had to take the back roads and detours because of the damage of Camille. I remember a patrolman letting us go towards Gulf Port, when we told him we were heading to New Orleans. When we got near the I-10 ramp, there were ships on the shore and all this hurricane damage, it was awesome! The road was closed so I don't know why the cop let us go, because we had to turn around and go back. But anyway, when we go to the raceway, we went to see someone that owned the record store that my male friend knew. He let us in early, so we were inside when they opened the gates and all these people came running in. We were able to get a site close to the stage. We had a great time and I'll never forget Janis Joplin, Oliver and T. Rex. They made you leave at night and spend the night outside the raceway. We found a shady place to camp and spent two nights then had to drive back to Pensacola. It was a great experience. The next year 1970, we went to the Atlanta Pop Festival. It was much larger, more people and I'll never forget Jimi Hendrix.
I was there. I was a senior in high school. My best friend and his girlfriend and I drove down on a Friday night from Birmingham, Alabama. It was wonderful. Santana and Chicago had just released their first album. Janis Joplin was terrific. It was so hot the fire department kept squirting us with water. The first day there this guy came running across the roof of a line of parked cars. There were about 20 people chasing him. We caught and skinned a rattlesnake and cooked it over an open fire. The weather was beautiful. The people were beautiful and the music was unforgettable. On the way back we got lost and wound up near Vicksburg, Mississippi.
I'm there now! [ PLEASE NOTE. As of 2/12/10 I have corrected the position of the racetrack further down in the thread. I discovered today that my subdivision wasn't the one where the racetrack was originally at. I have corrected this further down in the thread. Sorry about any confusion ] Hey folks, I just found out today about this amazing concert which apparently was right in my backyard! We built a home in the subdivision that's there now, about 10 years ago. It's now called Jefferson Oaks Subdivision. When we bought the property we knew that it once was the International Speedway, but in the 10 years I've been here, I didn't know about the amazing concert that was hosted here back in 1969!!! So, for those that are interested, the correct coordinates of the speedway center point are: 30°18'40.34"N, 90°58'26.95"W. Just north of the subdivision is a big field with an ancient barn. I can easily still see hundreds of tents that must have been setup over there. Also, if anyone has any video, audio or photos from the event, I would be deeply grateful as I'm designing the new subdivision website and will be putting up sights and sounds from the event on our webpage. What an amazing bit of history for our subdivision! -Mike