Miami Pop Festival was held December 28th–30th, 1968. It is considered the first major rock festival on America’s east coast. It was produced by a team led by Tom Rounds and Mel Lawrence, who had previously produced the seminal KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. The crowd size for the three days was estimated to be around 100,000 and featured
performers covering a wide range of music genres. The artists were:
The Amboy Dukes
Chuck Berry
Blues Image
Box Tops
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Canned Heat
Wayne Cochran
Cosmic Drum
James Cotton Blues Band
Country Joe and the Fish
Jose Feliciano
Fish Ray
Flatts and Scruggs
Fleetwood Mac
Marvin Gaye
The Grass Roots
Grateful Dead
Richie Havens
Ian & Sylvia
Iron Butterfly
Junior Junkanoos
Jr. Walker & The Allstars
The Charles Lloyd Quartet
Hugh Masekela
Joni Mitchell
Pacific Gas & Electric
Procol Harum
Terry Reid
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Steppenwolf
The Sweet Inspirations
Sweetwater
Joe Tex
Three Dog Night
The Turtles
Many of these musicians were cast as superheroes in a commemorative comic book distributed at the event. Interesting moments during the festival included: Joni Mitchell inviting former Hollies member and new love interest Graham Nash, as well as Richie Havens to join her onstage to sing Dino Valenti’s “Get Together”; and Jefferson Airplane’s Jack Casady playing bass guitar with Country Joe and the Fish.
This festival was unique in that it was the first rock festival to have two entirely separate ‘main’ stages several hundred yards apart (the Flower Stage and the Flying Stage), both operating simultaneously and offering performers of equal calibre.
admission, $7.00 100,000 people showed up for a 3 day, leave at night festival that really had no problems to speak of. It was organized by Tom Rounds, who had previously promoted the Mount Tam Fest ,in Oakland, Ca. He worked with the local Hallendale government officials to solve difficulties over sleeping arrangements and traffic jams. With a varied line up and, two stages a few hundred yards from each other, you could see one band, then go to the other stage and catch the next act. This set up insured there would be no lag in the music, one stage always had a band playing. In between the stages were huge pieces of art work that you could climb on and explore, a giant milk carton, and a giant slide, the kind you see at fairs and carnivals these days. this was also the first time I saw the work of artist Duane Hanson. He had an exhibit of very life like human figures made of fiberglass, all in very attention getting poses. The hit of the concert was Pacific Gas & Electric, they played four times at the festival, and rocked the sox off everyone. with an amazing drum solo. A huge favorite at MP II was Marvin Gaye, what a sweet soulful set ,” I Heard it Through The Grapevine “ and all. Rolling Stone Magazine, issue 26, had a picture of Jimi Hendrix on the cover, ( which probably confused everyone, As he played at MP II, he played at the first Miami Pop festival in the May of ’68 ) and declared it ” The Most Festive Festival of 1968 “.
The 2nd ‘Miami Pop Festival’ of 1968, 49 years ago today.
The Fat Angel Sings 