The Miami Pop Festival is the name by which a
music festival
A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or ho ...
that took place on May 18-19, 1968, in
Hallandale
Hallandale Beach (formerly known simply as Hallandale) is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States. The city is named after Luther Halland, the son of a Swedish worker for Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad. As of the 2 ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
, is sometimes known. The venue was
Gulfstream Park
Gulfstream Park, owned by The Stronach Group, is a Thoroughbred race track, casino and outdoor entertainment and shopping destination in Hallandale Beach, Florida. Thoroughbred horse racing occurs year-round, defined by three distinct race meets ...
, a horse racing track just north of
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
. The event, which was officially publicized on promotional materials and in radio ads as the "1968 Pop and Underground Festival," and "The 1968 Pop Festival," was promoted by
Richard O'Barry, Marshall Brevetz and
Michael Lang, the latter of whom became famous as one of the four promoters of
Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
in 1969. Decades later, the May 1968 festival began to be referred to colloquially as the "Miami Pop Festival", leading to confusion with the actual
Miami Pop Festival, which took place in December 1968.
History
The festival
An estimated 25,000 people attended this event. Bands featured at the festival included
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
,
The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention (also known as The Mothers) was an American rock band from California. Formed in 1964, their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows.
Originally an R&B ban ...
,
Blue Cheer
Blue Cheer was an American rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009. Based in San Francisco, Blue Cheer played in a psychedelic blues rock or acid rock style, and ...
,
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...
,
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often in ...
,
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown are an English rock band formed by singer Arthur Brown in 1967. The original band included Vincent Crane ( Hammond organ and piano), Drachen Theaker (drums), and Nick Greenwood (bass). This early incarnation w ...
,
Blues Image
Blues Image was an American rock band. They had a hit in 1970 with "Ride Captain Ride", which reached No. 4 on both the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and the Canadian RPM magazine charts.
Career
Blues Image was formed in Tampa, Florida in 1966 b ...
, Charles Austin Group, and Evil. The opening act on Saturday was a little-known group called The Package, and the closing act was The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The second part of what was originally scheduled as a two-day event, Sunday's concert was rained out, but there was at least one beneficial result — it inspired Hendrix to write "Rainy Day, Dream Away."
Media
On November 5, 2013, a CD and DVD were released containing the first available audio and film of the Experience at the festival. The CD, ''The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Miami Pop Festival'', contains about an hour of previously unreleased music. The DVD, ''Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train A Comin’'', features a two-hour documentary on Hendrix’s life, including previously-unseen film of Hendrix and the band at the Miami festival, as well as some extras with additional footage from the festival. The documentary was also broadcast in the US on November 5, 2013, by the Public Broadcasting Service as part of its
American Masters
''American Masters'' is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the ...
series.
Horowitz, Hal. ''The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Miami Pop Festival'' and ''American Masters: Jimi Hendrix – Hear My Train A Comin’'' DVD. November 5, 2013. American Songwriter.
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See also
* List of historic rock festivals
References
External links
The festival as chronicled at oldrockphoto.com
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Music festivals in Miami
1968 in Florida
1968 in American music
Counterculture festivals
Music festivals established in 1968
1968 music festivals