Newport Pop Festival
Encyclopedia
The Newport Pop Festival, held in Costa Mesa, California
Costa Mesa, California
Costa Mesa is a city in Orange County, California. The population was 109,960 at the 2010 census. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to a primarily suburban and "edge" city with an economy based on retail, commerce, and light...

, August 3–4, 1968, was the first music concert ever to have more than 100,000 paid attendees.

There were two separate events staged in the late 1960s that are commonly referred to as the "Newport Pop Festival." The first was called the Newport Pop Festival, held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, the weekend of August 3–4, 1968. The second event was originally billed as "Newport 69," and was held over the three-day weekend of June 20–22, 1969 in Northridge, California at Devonshire Downs. In published writings over the last 40 years, this latter event has been referred to as the "Newport 69 Pop Festival," the "Newport Pop Festival 1969" and simply the "Newport Pop Festival." Subsequently, much confusion has been created over the years between the 1968 and 1969 events. Some of this confusion was generated by the participating musicians themselves who, later, in their interviews, kept getting the two events mixed up.
The latter event was organized by Mark Robinson (age 25) who was one of the three promoters of the original Newport Pop Festival in 1968. The other two promoters of the 68 event were Gary R. Schmidt (age 26) and his father Al Schmidt. Al was not a rock n roller but an entrepreneural business man that helped with the money and licensing. There was a brief law suit between the two Schmidts and Robinson just prior to the "Newport 69" show which the Schmidts had declined to be involved in because of the cost of the acts, The entire band budget for the 68 show was under 50,000 dollars while Robinson paid Jimi Hendrix alone 50,000 dollars for the 69 event. This was an amount of money unheard of at that time for a rock act. The 68 show made money and the 69 show did not. The law suit was over trade names and the last few days before the 69 show the Court ordered that Robinson had to use disclaimers in advertising "not affiliated with the Newport Pop Festival" or he would not have been able to do a "Newport 70". show using that name. A round "hand Bill" flyer the size of a 45RPM record was used to promote the 1968 Costa Mesa show which is included in "The Art of Rock" a publication of 60's and 70's poster art. The round flyer has sold on Ebay for as much as 500 dollars.

The Newport Pop Festival 1968

The first Newport Pop Festival was held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, on the weekend of August 3–4, 1968. It is believed to have been the first pop music concert attended by more than 100,000 paying concertgoers.

The 1968 event was originally scheduled to be held inside the Orange County Fairgrounds in an outdoor pavilion. The fairgrounds are on Newport Boulevard just a short distance from Newport Beach, thus the name. The 1968 event advance ticket sales were triple what was expected and it became evident that there was no place inside the fairgrounds that a stage could be set up where even over 25,000 people could see the show let alone the near 100,000 now expected. In the last three days before the show it was moved to one of the adjoining parking lots of the fairgrounds. Fencing, staging, sanitation, and food concessions had to be organized in just a three day period. None of the commercial concessionaires were prepared for the event and they all ran out of food and drink half the way through the first day. Water was provided throughout the event by garden hoses from inside the fairgrounds but attendees had to give up their viewing spot to go for the water and provide their own containers. There were plenty of porta-pottys available at the rear of the hastily-assembled "grounds". There was no shade in the primary viewing area and partiers were sunburned. The weather was a typical August sunny Southern California day. Those without hotel reservations had no place to stay. Fortunately, City officials helped to alleviate some of the problems by designating a 32 acres (129,499.5 m²) area of the fairgrounds as an emergency camp site. They also brought in portable toilets and water tanks. This particular event inaugurated some of the problems rock festival promoters would face in the future.

Harvey "Humble Harve" Miller, one of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 Top-40 disc jockeys (on 93 KHJ-AM) was used by the promoters to promote the show and hosted the event with Wavy-Gravy. Wesco productions (West Coast productions) consisted of Mark Robinson, Gary Schmidt and Al Schmidt although Humble Harv was used on advertising for promotional purposes. Tom Neito of Scenic Sounds Productions also assisted in securing the fairgrounds and was paid a fee and received some promotional billing. Mark Robinson had been involved with Bob Blodget in staging a much smaller similar weekend festival in 1967 in Los Angeles. There never was a 2nd edition of this event and its prominence faded from memory until, on August 4, 2008, Jeff Overley penned a feature article for the Orange County Register  that commemorated the 40th anniversary of the event.

The big hits with the crowd were Tiny Tim, the Airplane, Country Joe, The Chambers Brothers, and Steppenwolf.

Mark Robinson went on to promote a similar show in 1969 with Jimi Hendrix called Newport 69 and later became an attorney and practised law with Melvin Belli. Al Schmidt continued in non rock 'n' roll business until he died aged 83 in the late 1990s, and Gary Schmidt entered the nightclub business and continued to promote smaller events throughout Northern California including two more festivals with attendance in the 25–30,000 range, The Labor Day Weekend Music and Arts Festival in Carson City, Nevada in 1972 and Super Sun Bust Summer of 1973 at the Eugene Speedway (Oregon). For some of these productions Schmidt teamed up with Bill Quarry a well known early East Bay promoter Bill Quarry (see "Teens N Twenties" and "The East Bay Scene, Garage Bands from the 60's, Then and Now"). Schmidt also operated a well know rock venue nightclub, The Odyssey Room, in Sunnyvale California from 1969 through 1989(see Odyssey Room Revisted) and a venue just outside of Reno, Nevada on Mt. Rose called the Reindeer Lodge which as of 2010 still has occasional shows.

The 1968 event, however, attracted a lot of media attention at the time. When Rolling Stone Magazine published an article on the event in their September 14, 1968 edition, they said:

Newport Pop Festival Drags on in Dust and Heat: Dead, Country Joe, Crosby, pie fight weekend's highlights
Among other highlights that concert-goers recall are when helicopters flew overhead, dropping flowers on the audience. And, on Sunday, Sonny and Cher arrived by helicopter and were later booed off the stage.

Bands Performing at the Festival:

Saturday, August 3, 1968

Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...

, Canned Heat
Canned Heat
Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...

, Chambers Brothers, Charles Lloyd Quartet, Country Joe and the Fish
Country Joe and the Fish
Country Joe and the Fish was a rock band most widely known for musical protests against the Vietnam War, from 1966 to 1971, and also regarded as a seminal influence to psychedelic rock.-History:...

, Electric Flag
Electric Flag
The Electric Flag was a blues rock soul group, led by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, keyboardist Barry Goldberg and drummer Buddy Miles, and featuring other well-known musicians such as vocalist Nick Gravenites and bassist Harvey Brooks. Bloomfield formed the Electric Flag in 1967, following his stint...

, James Cotton Blues Band, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher were an American pop music duo, actors, singers and entertainers made up of husband-and-wife team Sonny and Cher Bono in the 1960s and 1970s. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector....

, Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf (band)
Steppenwolf are a Canadian-American rock group that was prominent in the late 1960s. The group was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by vocalist John Kay, guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Rushton Moreve, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton after the dissolution of Toronto group The...

, Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim (musician)
Tiny Tim , , born in Manhattan, was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice.-Rise to fame:Born to Lebanese parents in 1932, Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age...

.

During the Charles Lloyd Quartet set, Lee Michaels and Frosty began playing on an alternate stage at the rear of the crowd. Most of the attendees turned around and watched them as the Lloyd music was not in the style they had come to listen to.

Sunday, August 4, 1968

Blue Cheer
Blue Cheer
Blue Cheer was an American psychedelic blues-rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009...

, Eric Burdon & The Animals, Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...

, Illinois Speed Press
Illinois Speed Press
Illinois Speed Press was an American rock band formed - originally, in 1965, as The Rovin' Kind - in Chicago, later relocating to California. The band was formed by Paul Cotton - later of Poco - and Kal David...

, Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly is a US psychedelic rock band best known for the 1968 hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".Their heyday was the late 1960s, but the band has been reincarnated with various members. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is the 31st best-selling album in the world, selling more than 25 million copies.-History:The...

, Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....

, Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.-Introduction:Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked...

, The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...

, Things to Come.

Bands that may have performed at the festival
Though Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. They are best known as the band that featured Janis Joplin as their...

, Lovin' Spoonful, Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros (band)
Rhinoceros was a rock band established in 1967 by Elektra Records as that label's intended supergroup. The band, while well respected in many circles, did not live up to the record label's expectations...

, Sky Pilot
Sky Pilot
Sky Pilot can refer to:*A British and American slang term for a military chaplain*A common name for the wildflowers Polemonium viscosum and Polemonium eximium*Sky Pilot, a 1968 song by Eric Burdon & The Animals...

, and The Turtles
The Turtles
The Turtles are an American rock group led by vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. The band became notable for several Top 40 hits beginning with its cover version of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" in 1965...

 were not listed on the official poster for the event, there is published evidence that indicates that these bands may have played at the festival.

It is believed that the 1969 festival was intended to be the successor to the Orange County event, hoping to capitalize on the brand name and market momentum generated in 1968. Unfortunately, this move of venue was necessary because the 1968 event had fallen in disfavor with the local community leaders. Three days after the 1968 event, the Costa Mesa City Council vowed to prevent a Newport Pop Festival encore. "To say that we would not like it back here would be the understatement of the year," Costa Mesa Mayor Alvin Pinkley was quoted as saying.

The "Newport 69" Festival

Attended by 150,000 fans, the festival on June 20–22, 1969 was the largest pop concert up to that time and is considered the more famous of the two Newport Pop Festivals, possibly because of the appearance of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which got top billing at the venue. Devonshire Downs was a racetrack at that time but now is part of the North Campus for California State University at Northridge.

Friday, June 20, 1969

Albert King
Albert King
Albert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...

, Edwin Hawkins Singers, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience were an English-American psychedelic rock band that formed in London in October 1966. Comprising eponymous singer-songwriter and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until June 1969, in which...

, Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...

, Southwind
Southwind
Southwind may refer to:* Southwind Drum and Bugle Corps* Southwind Rail Travel Limited* USCGC Southwind * Southwind, a Filipino alternative band origin from Davao...

, Spirit
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...

 and Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...

.

Saturday, June 21, 1969

Albert Collins
Albert Collins
Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...

, Brenton Wood
Brenton Wood
Brenton Wood is an American singer and songwriter, best known for his two 1967 hit singles: "The Oogum Boogum Song" and "Gimme Little Sign".-Career:...

, Buffy Ste. Marie, Charity, Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....

, Eric Burdon
Eric Burdon
Eric Victor Burdon is an English singer-songwriter best known as a founding member and vocalist of rock band The Animals, and the funk rock band War and for his aggressive stage performance...

, Friends of Distinction
Friends of Distinction
The Friends of Distinction are an American vocal group best known for their late 1960s hits, "Grazing in the Grass", "Love or Let Me Be Lonely", and "Going in Circles"...

, Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.Initially playing blues rock with...

, Lee Michaels
Lee Michaels
Lee Michaels plays the Hammond organ, piano, and guitar , and is best known for his 1971 Top 10 pop hit single, "Do You Know What I Mean."-Career:...

, Love
Love (band)
Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols...

, Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf (band)
Steppenwolf are a Canadian-American rock group that was prominent in the late 1960s. The group was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by vocalist John Kay, guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Rushton Moreve, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton after the dissolution of Toronto group The...

 and Sweetwater
Sweetwater (band)
Sweetwater was a rock band originally from Los Angeles. They were the act scheduled to play first at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, although due to problems within the band, solo folksinger Richie Havens became the first performer...

.

Sunday, June 22, 1969

Booker T & the MGs, Chambers Brothers, Flock
The Flock (band)
The Flock was a Chicago-based jazz-rock band that released two records on Columbia records in 1969 and 1970 . The Flock did not achieve the commercial success of other Columbia jazz-rock groups of the era such as Chicago and Blood Sweat & Tears, but were most notable for their inclusion of a...

, The Grass Roots
The Grass Roots
The Grass Roots is an American rock band that charted between 1966 and 1975 as the brainchild of songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri.In their career, The Grass Roots achieved two gold albums, one gold single and charted singles a total of 21 times. Among their charting singles, they...

, Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...

, Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....

, Mother Earth, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

, Buddy Miles
Buddy Miles
George Allen Miles, Jr. , known as Buddy Miles, was an American rock and funk drummer, most known as a founding member of The Electric Flag in 1967, then as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 through to January 1970.-Early life:George Allen Miles was born in Omaha, Nebraska on...

, Eric Burdon
Eric Burdon
Eric Victor Burdon is an English singer-songwriter best known as a founding member and vocalist of rock band The Animals, and the funk rock band War and for his aggressive stage performance...

, and Mother Earth (jam), Poco
Poco
Poco is an Southern California country rock band originally formed by Richie Furay and Jim Messina following the demise of Buffalo Springfield in 1968. The title of their first album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, is a reference to the break-up of Buffalo Springfield. Highly influential and creative,...

 (formerly Pogo), The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...

, The Rascals
The Rascals
The Rascals were an American blue-eyed soul group initially active during the years 1965–72. The band released numerous top ten singles in North America during the mid- and late-1960s, including the U.S. #1 hits "Good Lovin'" , "Groovin'" , and "People Got to Be Free"...

 and Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night is an American rock band best known for their music from 1968 to 1975. During that time the band charted 21 Billboard top 40 hits in America, three of which reached Number One...

.

External links

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