1968 Miami Pop Festival where Woodstock was born

5/17-18/68 - THE MIAMI POP FESTIVAL, GULFSTREAM TRACK, HALLENDALE, FL. - .50,000 people - Promoted by MICHAEL LANG, and Rick O'Barry- with Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and the Mothers of Invention, Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, + Inspired by Monterey, this was Michael Lang and Rick O'Barry's first production, and is called 'The Road to Woodstock ." It was a two day, leave at night, come back the next day, festival. Headlined by JImi Hendrix and the Experience, who arrived by helicopter, this festival used flatbed trucks for stages. On the first day, a daytime & night time set was performed by Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry, and Jimi Hendrix. The next day bad rain storms kept Jimi from performing, and was the inspiration for " Rainy Day, Dream Away ". This was very early in my concert photography career, and I only knew how to shoot with a flash at night. This would prove to be a big problem only two frames into Jimi's night time set, I was stopped cold in my photographic tracks. I had a Honeywell strobe powered by a 510 volt battery that was very powerful, and too powerful for Jimi indeed. " There will be no more flash photography " Jimi told me, and the whole audience. I took the hint, and sat and watched the rest of the concert with my friends.

12/28-30/68 - MIAMI POP II, GULFSTREAM TRACK, HALLENDALE, FL. - 100,000 people - Promoted by Tom Rounds - admission, $7.00 - Procal Harum, The Box Tops, The Turtles, Grass Roots, 3 Dog Night, Steppenwolf, Blues Image, Richie Havens, The Sweet Inspirations, Pacific Gas & Electric, Joni Mitchell, Jr. Walker & The Allstars, The Infinate McCoys, Sweetwater, Jose Feliciano, The James Cotten Blues Band, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Hugh Masakela, Chuck Berry, The Joe Tex Revue, Canned Heat, Marvin Gaye, Iron Butterfly, The Charles Lloyd Quartet, Booker T & The M. G.'s, Flatt and Scruggs, Ian & Sylvia, Country Joe and The Fish, Buffy St. Marie, Fleetwood Mac, And The Greatful Dead - The first major festival on the East Coast, 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. It was at this concert that I met Richie Havens, he wa standing on the side of the stage watching another band, I took this opportunity to introduce myself. Every time I went to see him after that, I would always give him pics from the previous concert. The hit of the concert was Pacific Gas & Electric, they played four times at the festival, and rocked the sox off everyone. I remember an amazing drum solo. My favorite artist 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, to think he played at MP II, he played at the first Miami Pop festivalin May of '68 ) and declared it " The Most Festive Festival of 1968 ". By Ken Davidoff