Celebration of Life

It was mixed up, and if I recall it wasnt 3 days, it was 7-----Lots of 7s. Im not positive but I believe there were 7 babys born and 7 deaths, most were drownings in that stinkin ass river. There was no fresh water for days to drink, then they brought in Tankers.It was sooo fcukin HOT !!!!! Bands played only at night.

It was a Blast

 

I was there. I hitched with some friends from South Florida to La. in two days. the temps were over 100 degrees, and a lot of mud everywhere. Not to mention acid, cheap grass, etc. I learned how to use chopsticks here. The police tried to stop us about 30 miles from Morganza. When we reached Morganza, the whole town was out partying with the hundreds (thousands?) of sudden campers in their midst. The next morning we got in line in our hitchhiked van on the levee and waited all day to get in. It was good that we had tickets because the Florida Outlaws (biker gang) were out in force selling forcing people to buy phony tickets. After we got inside I took about 5 hits of four way sunshine and don't remember much of the music, but the river was a blast. I was one of the mud people who would sneak up on the unmuddied bathers and attack them with nice hot mudpies. Despite the mud covering me I got the worst sunburn of my life and had to leave a day early. I will never forget this party, even if I don't remember the music. Hey, did anyone out there go to Concert 10 in the Poconos (at the speedway)? Now that was some great music!!

 

I googled this yesterday and "How cool! You are still out there and it really did happen!
LOL
Thanks to these messages so many memories have come back. It was great fun for me and the folks that I was with. We were married to each other for a short time. ;>

We were sitting on the river and watching a boat, not unlike the pic w/ the flag on the end that someone posted (thanks btw!) That boat had a train of people , rafts? hooked to it and we watched the folks go under and it looked like most drowned. They were running down the center of the river.
Do you remember hearing the loudspeaker saying "We have our first baby born?!"
There were good and bad things... as with everything.

Also some large painted bus (maybe religious folks?) giving away food...Our group had food, water and a tent. Etc…

Took that acid during the stormy night that the person said it seemed like acid.....
He pretty much described the trip I was on...loved it! It was acid. *_*

Wish more bands had showed, but am thrilled to find out I heard John Lee after all!
Did not appreciate the blues like I do now.

Did not get muddy 'cause my husband (for the 3 very strange months we were married) who was just off a ship from Vietnam, said everyone would get a really bad burn because of it.

I still have long hair and still consider myself a freak. I love you guys!!
rOCK N rOLL (was that really Stills that said "go"? we thought he should go!)

also : We were there before the rain and remember being told to move the tents back from the towers at some point?

Later, o k ….from Houston then and now

 

Found 2 things on the Concert...
1.) Brownsville Station
http://bs.angeltowns.com/1971.html

Celebration of Life Poster
Wish it was for sale.

2.) Vanderbilt Television News Archive
http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/tvncust-login.pl?SID=20070315250762939&RegType=Search

3 nightly news reports on tape for a price. costly...

So many conflicting stories. Such is life ...

 

I can't even believe this rock festival really happened, because I was so utterly stoned the whole time! I had taken acid almost daily for about 8 months by the time this event came along, and was so filled with angst that I would never know FOR SURE where or not there life after death, but I stashed as much free drugs as I could from our time out there, and attempted to OD for the purpose of finally finding out. Must've taken equal amounts of uppers to downers, because all I did was sleep 3 days. But the trips to the medic trips were fun--all of us voluptuous young topless gals ogling at the sun-burned penises being treated! ?We were all lined up for the anointing of the medics.

 

I WAS AT THAT FESTIVAL! THE CELEBRATION OF LIFE FESTIVAL, JUNE 71 if anyone want to share experiences with me, please email me at: pyramiddj1@aol.com Rich

 

HELLO EVERYONE, I WAS AT THIS FESTIVAL!!! I've been trying very hard, frantically searching for people who attendend this concert in McCrea La in 1971.
I have many stories to tell. I you'd like, email me at:
pyramiddj1@aol.com and put CELEBRATION in the subject line!

Thanks for memories!
Rich

PS NEVER FORGET THE ORANGE SUNSHINE!

 

Couple folks were asking about if anyone had any memorabilia for this festival.
Check out:

http://www.concertposterart.com/detailed.aspx?poster=2734

image and line up at the time the ad was released, i've also got a full info sheet that gives lots of great details...I'd never heard of the fest until i found this old ad. Miles Davis and Pink Floyd on the Same bill...WOW...does anyone know if they both played???

anyhow, enjoy the image...

Thanks,
Jacob

Riverwalk Records
Attn: Jacob Grossi
45 State Street, #119
Montpelier, VT 05602

 

that looks like an awesome concert!!

i wish i could have been there.. sweet

 

Yeah I was there and scored some good blue mercury acid there too. Lots of mud and not so smart freaks who tried to swim in the Atchafalaya River which anyone down here knows is a no-no. This was the last festival of this size in Louisiana.Y.B.

 

Hi Yogi,

Have to agree about the River.....I sat there and noticed how you walked out a few feet and it seemed to drop off the map. Wondering who had the idea to have the concert there. Googled the general area to see about a visit ....seems to have changed alot and don't really know the exact location. We just bought/or were given the acid there...Blue M. huh...if it was the same for me, I found it a very easy trip.

Do not remember Miles Davis and Pink Floyd being there....
Still, I had fun.

.....wonder what was really going on?
If you are reading this Rich, maybe you know something about the original plan?

K

As for the poster, Jacob
...why don't you make copies and sell them cheaper?

 

http://www.stevenfromholz.com/factsfiction.html

Roll
...Festivals!
(or the 1971
"great festive debacle"
in the Louisiana
swamp!)

Fourth in a series of articles
By Steven Fromholz



The Dictionary defines “festival” as a feast or celebration or a series of programmed cultural
events.

My first festival experience was in June, 1971 at “The Festival of Life,” deep in the swamps of
Louisiana – near Baton Rouge. At that time I was employed by Stephen Stills as a guitarist
and vocalist in the rock and roll band he had put together – with which to tour nationwide –
his second solo album for Atlantic records. The band consisted of myself, the great bassist,
Fuzzy Samuels, Paul Harris on keyboards, and Dallas Taylor on drums...and Stills.

We were in Memphis that June, in rehearsals with the Memphis Horns, when Stephen’s
management folks received a request from the promoters of the “Festival of Life” which had
turned into a disastrous Festival of Death – huge amounts of rain and several people dying
there in the mud and the blood and the beer and the drugs of that swampy event. The
promoters wanted us to come down on the final evening to close the show and encourage
the fans to get the hell out of there in some sort of orderly fashion.

Stills accepted the invitation and that afternoon we were in a Lear Jet winging our way,
without the horn section, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At the airport we were met by a pair of
two passenger, bubble-top, Bell Helicopters, which would – with any kind of luck – fly us to
the festival site. Stephen went out in one and the rest of the band was overloaded with our
instruments – no piano – into the other and off we flew into the deep, dark night that is the
Louisiana swamp lands. The rest of the band and I all thought we would probably crash into
the swamp, there to be eaten by alligators, and go down in history as a great rock and roll
tragedy. We did not crash – as fate would have it, and fate will have it!

We arrived and were escorted to the star’s dressing room where Stills was ensconced,
Pasha-like, awaiting our arrival or news of our untimely deaths. We remained in the dressing
room for an hour or so, getting high enough to hunt ducks with rakes, until it came time for us
to hit the stage and try to close what had become a disastrous event.

I have no idea what time we took the stage but I do remember beginning our set with a
jumpin’ version of Stephen’s hit song “Rock and Roll Woman.” The remainder of the set is
kind of a blur in my memory but I do recall that because of the lights on stage, not being able
to see any of the thousands of people out front – but, I could smell their swampyness with
more than just a hint of pot wafting onto the stage. We played five of the six songs we knew
as a band and then Stills took to the piano and began his peace and love, brother and sister
medley, at which point a loud, male voice at the left front of the stage was heard to exclaim,
“Shut-up and play your f----in’ rock ‘n roll.” – which we did!

We then beat a speedy retreat back to the relative safety of the dressing room. I do not know if
we were successful in our attempt to end this festive debacle but the boys and I were ready to
get the hell out of the swamp and back to our fine hotel rooms and excellent room service of
the Commodore Perry Hotel in downtown Memphis. As you can guess, we did not die in a
helicopter crash in the swamp on the trip back to Baton Rouge – arriving just in time to see
our Lear Jet leave for Memphis without us. We sat in the airport for hours and hours waiting
for the first commercial flight to Memphis. I certainly wouldn’t call that experience “a series of
programmed cultural events,” but...that is how festivals and I began

 

That is the poster I have been looking for! This is why we said YES to record the fest. Pink Floyd and Miles did not play due to the court delays in Louisana trying to ban the concert, however a lot of the artist on the poster were in the area and prepared to play.

 

Here is some info I found from Brownsville Station site.

The festival was to be eight days long, but was four days late in getting started, with abbreviated line-ups each of the three days that did take place. The first stage collapsed. The police were shooting at attendees and arresting many. The shift river currents took at least two lives. Food and facilities were nil, and the IRS were at the gates collecting what receipts they could from the 100,000 festival-goers who would otherwise have paid to get in. Most paid nothing to get in, however.The weather was ruthless--exceedingly hot and very humid, and when it rained, it came down so hard one could not stand out in it as it actually hurt to be pelted by the downpours! On the third day, Melanie opened and performed a full solo set, and then Stephen Stills and Neil Young played, but the plug was pulled before they had finished their set, and it was officially over at that point.
http://bs.angeltowns.com/1971.html

 

I was there
On my way to my internship in the USPHS in New Orleans driving from Detroit and stopped for the concert. Was volunteering in the clinic tent while between sleeping under a truck and listeneing to the music. A well know individual stopped in to check out what was going on in the clinic tent --Jerry Rubin. He seemed to be looking there for what was wrong rather then what help that was being given in the free clinic. It was the first time I had done suturing and my hands were quite shakey at first. Met a very nice lady at the concert who let me stay at her commune in New Orleans til I found a place to live. She had a great voice and played acoutic guitar --Dorthy ?

Marvin

 

I was there but I can tell you I don't remember much of it. It must have ben really good!

 

I was there too, honestly, I don't remember much of it. I have tried to find information on the festival and until now the only p;ace I could find anything was a descritption on Wikipedia. Like you, the older I get, the more nostalgic I get about it.

 

I was just out of the eleventh grade. There is an article about it in the TIME mag archives called "Mud, Sweat and Tears in Louisiana".dated July 12, 1971.
I remember Cocaine Alley and a guy wearing nothing but cutoffs, knee boots, and a top hat with a cardboard tag saying New York Smack. I remember Melanie fumbling around in a matchbox and singing like an angel, Brownsville Station, and John Fogerty. I wound up in the trip tent as I lost my "people" and had my picture published in a local newspaper as I was the only one at the river with any clothes on.

 

Hi, jonifan. I wonder if anyone is still listening to this. Anyway, I was there, too. I remember Melanie, Amboy Dukes, I think maybe Bloodrock, though I may have another concert confused with those guys. I also remember Brownsville Station distinctly and John Fogerty, I think. Also It's a Beautiful Day. I was only 16 and wound up in the trip tent at some point after taking a challenge on Cocaine Alley. That was a looooong time ago.

 

Well, I remember good times, too. Just not very clearly. Do you remember if Bloodrock was there? They were the ones that did DOA. I remember It's a Beautiful Day, too. I had fallen asleep, apparently in an ant pile, but was so sunburned I didn't realize that one eye was swelled almost shut as I awoke to them playing as the sun rose. I remember guys selling drugs and throwing free candy, too. I think they were from Chicago. I was only 16 and when I got home my mom didn't recognize me with my swelled shut eye and baked on dirt. But I remember a lot of cool music, myself.