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Music HistoricityGary Gibula: Music Festival Musings

Gary Gibula For The Southern

Have you ever attended a really big outdoor music festival?

Not the Du Quoin State Fair or a concert weekend at the Shawnee Cave Amphitheatre, but a multi-day event featuring dozens of bands at an even larger site.

The prospect of purchasing tickets and attending a big festival is exciting to think about. Some of them are remembered as cultural events that defined a generation, like Woodstock, Monterey Pop or Lollapalooza.

Romanticism aside, enjoying music at a large festival also usually involves dealing with certain additional unpleasant realities.

While promotions for the event may include your current favorite artist listed as part of the lineup, it typically includes no mention of important details like the availability of bathroom facilities, vehicle parking or prohibited items.

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Today's domestic and worldwide concert tours are managed by companies like Live Nation and Clair Global, the latter of which was your humble narrator's employer for a couple exciting years.

Back in the spring of 1969, two entrepreneurs answering a newspaper ad were the producers of the three-day concert weekend that came to be known as Woodstock.

A Music Historicity installment from June of last year detailed the event.

Poor planning led to site preparation not being fully complete by the opening date of the festival, which was August 15, 1969. The stage had been built but there were no ticket booths or fencing around the area.

By whatever unknown logic or calculation, organizers were expecting 50,000 attendees to their "Aquarian Exposition," as it was billed.

When it was all over, the number of concert-goers was estimated to have been 450,000 to 600,000.

Without adequate bathing facilities, Woodstock attendees stripped down and jumped in a nearby pond.

With ten times the expected crowd, music fans slept in their sleeping bags wherever they found ground space. Food also was a problem.

"What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000," San Francisco peace activist Wavy Gravy said to the crowd on the second morning of Woodstock.

Both old hippies and Gen-Xers who weren't even born yet can agree that the 1969 Woodstock festival featured a lineup of amazing bands: Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Winter, the Grateful Dead and many more.

Over 250,000 music fans traveled to Ontario, California on April 6, 1974, for a one-day event labeled California Jam.

It's significant because the event reportedly was profitable for the organizers and had adequate water and other facilities.

Performers at California Jam included Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, the Eagles and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, among others.

The US Festival, in 1982 and 1983, held near San Bernadino, California, aspired to fix many of the problems associated with large music concert events.

Along with concert promoter Bill Graham, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak set out to combine technology with music events. He established a live satellite link with the Soviet Union to foster goodwill through the multi-day concerts.

Some of the performers at the 1982 event included The Police, Talking Heads, the Ramones, the Cars, The Kinks, Tom Petty and the Grateful Dead.

The lineup in 1983 included The Pretenders, Joe Walsh, Van Halen, The Clash, Wall of Voodoo, the Stray Cats and many others.

The US Festival had excellent amenities, as YouTube documentaries report, but lost millions of dollars for the promoters.

Since 1991, a four-day music festival known as Lollapalooza has proven successful. After being a touring festival for its first six years, the annual concert has been for the last 23 years held at a lakefront venue in downtown Chicago.

As opposed to some festivals with a certain theme of music genres, Lollapalooza features a variety of bands and styles. Performers for this year's event, taking place the first weekend of August, include headliners Billie Eilish, Karol G, Kendrick Lamar, The 1975, Odesza, Tomorrow X Together, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lana Del Rey. Other featured artists include Yung Gravy and Carly Rae Jepsen.

In total, nearly 400 bands will be performing simultaneously on several stages. While it will be an amazing lineup of talent, parking in downtown Chicago is always a challenge.

By the way, I was fortunate enough to work on the concert crew for two Lollapalooza events a few years back. It was a gas!

Billed as the largest music festival in the world, Milwaukee Summerfest features dozens of big-name performers on a dozen stages. The event, which began on June 22, goes until July 8.

Some of the headliners at the current Summerfest include James Taylor, the Zac Brown Band, Eric Church and NLE Choppa.

After attending several Milwaukee Summerfests, I think they do a great job with their festival experience. Parking is easy, there are plenty of bathrooms, there's a ski lift tram to ride high above the entire festival site and basic daily admission is just $26.

In terms of the most in-person attendees for a concert, it's documented that over 3.5 million people were at (or near) a New Year's Eve 1994 Rod Stewart performance that took place at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

But if you consider today's ability to stream concerts on the computer, the event known as Live Aid eclipses all.

On July 13, 1985, musicians Bob Geldolf (Boomtown Rats) and Midge Ure (Ultravox) organized the benefit concert at Wembley Stadium in London, England, to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia.

It's reported that in addition to the 72,000 attendees in London, over 89,000 were at a simultaneous Live Aid event at John F. Kennedy stadium in Philadelphia.

Other same-day concerts also were held in Australia, Austria, Canada, Japan, the Soviet Union, West Germany and Yugoslavia. With satellite and television simulcasts, the total audience experiencing Live Aid that day was estimated at 1.9 billion.

An amazing lineup of performers at the London and Philadelphia shows included the Beach Boys, Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Eric Clapton, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Queen, The Who, Tom Petty, U2 and many more.

The event reportedly changed humanitarian priorities for many governments and also raised about $208,275,000 — worth $588,681,000 today.

Are inconveniences like parking, long lines and other restrictions worth it for a big festival experience? To me, the answer is yes!

Gary Gibula is an SIU alum, musician, writer, editor and author of the Music Historicity columns. He can be reached at gary@gratefulgary.Com.

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5 Years Since Man Vanished At Electric Forest Festival, Parents Aren't Giving Up

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This upcoming week will mark five years since the disappearance of Oakland County man Kevin Graves, who was last seen at the Electric Forest music festival in 2018.

ROTHBURY, Mich. (WXYZ) — This upcoming week will mark five years since the disappearance of Oakland County man Kevin Graves, who was last seen at the Electric Forest music festival in 2018.

His mom Kathy Graves told us, "I don't think I met anybody who didn't like Kevin, he was big-hearted."

Kathy and Kevin's dad Gary Graves told us the then-28-year-old was kind to everyone.

He called his mom every night until the day he went missing on July 1, 2018.

"It's just been very hard. It's like there's a big hole in my heart," Kathy Graves said.

According to his parents, Kevin Graves was living in Oakland County and traveled with his then-girlfriend to Rothbury on the west side of Michigan to go to the popular music festival, often compared to Woodstock.

Gary Graves said that Kevin called and told them he was having a great time.

"The next thing we know, we get a phone call from his girlfriend on the first of July. She says that he went missing," Gary Graves said.

According to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, witnesses say Kevin Graves got into a fight with his girlfriend, left a group of people then disappeared.

There's been no cellphone use or bank activity since. K-9s and flyover teams have searched the forest where the festival takes place. Dive teams have searched the nearby lakes.

The forest where the festival is held is massive at 2,200 acres. To put that in perspective, that's about 1,666 football fields.

Kathy and Gary Graves say they believe their son's body is still in the forest, even though Michigan State Police say that's not possible due to how thoroughly the forest has been searched.

"We'll never stop hoping," Gary Graves said.

The Graveses said they plan to go out to Electric Forest this year but have been asked not to pass out flyers on the festival property.

Still, there will be a massive billboard right outside the event and flyers at all area stores. There's also a Facebook page for Kevin Graves.

The hope is that if anyone knows or sees anything, they'll reach out to the Oakland County Sheriff's Department at 248-858-4950.

"I'm not saying he was perfect, but he was still my son and I'd just love to know what happened to him," Gary Graves said.

Kathy Graves shared, "My last words to him were, 'Have a good time and please be careful.'"

Bearsville Folk Festival Being Held In Woodstock

Posted: Jun 23, 2023 / 02:48 PM EDT

Updated: Jun 23, 2023 / 02:48 PM EDT

WOODSTOCK, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Bearsville Park in Woodstock will be hosting the 2023 Bearsville Folk Festival. The event is scheduled for July 2 from 1 p.M. To 6 p.M.

The festival will feature folk and roots music in the heart of the Catskills, with performances by Lara Hope and The Gold Hope Duo, Jenna Nicholls and Jon Ladeau, and Hey Bub. All three groups are active in the Hudson Valley roots music community.

The event will offer artisan barbecue and beverages for attendees to enjoy. The festival will be held in the Bearsville Theater, located at 291 Tinker Street.

You can purchase festival tickets in advance on the Bearsville Theater website.

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