Celebration of Life

That was the name of a three day rock festival held in Louisiana back in the summer of 1971. I was wondering if there was anyone else here who attended.
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Was up in Vermont at earth peoples park that summer,
have you done a google search on the subject???
I have found about 10 people now that I knew from the park by looking around on the web.

Good Luck,
teepi

 

I've done other searches and have found one or two people who attended. I guess I thought this forum might have some members old enough to have been there too.

The older I get, the more nostalgic I am about the late 60's, early 70's. Probably just my mid-life crisis raising it's ugly head. Either that or male menopause ;o)

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Summer of 71 I was rather busy overseas.I never even heard of that concert.I'll bet it was good.

 

I was there!! My company Jackson Sound Studios recorded it live. I still have all the masters .. What a flashback!!

 

Cool.It is a small world.

 

Hey Delta,

I knew there had to somebody on here that attended besides me! I'd love to talk to you about the recordings. I remember there were some film crews there too and they were going to make a documentary. I've never been able to track that one though.

PEACE!
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I was there and am trying to write a memoir about it. Any details would be helpful! Do you remember which bands played?

 

I have all the names of artist that played on the masters. There were a lot that had to go to other gigs. We were at the Holiday Inn for what seemed like weeks. The fest was to start I think about a week before. Will have to dig up some old paperwork..:H I have one of the posters somewhere..

 

Delta, legally can you make up some cd's of it and sell them ? I'd love to hear it.

 

There are no plans for release at present. I may however pull some takes and play them on my stream.. Just got to get up the nerve to play tha tapes! They are unmixed and pretty rough. It would make for an interesting radio show..

 

My,my! That was a festival in Louisiana! A VW bus load of us drove down from ATL.It was fun,but...a lot of the bands were no shows. Chuck Berry played,I think Stephen Stills(??) got on stage and told everyone to go on home 'cause it was a ripoff. Other than that I had a great time! Lotsa good buzzes,playing in the river(it was incredibly hot!)folks camping all over,selling their wares.I was oh so young then,the world was a new and exciting place.People really cared for each other,we were truly 'brothers & sisters'! Yes,I'm glad I came up in that era!

 

I wish I could find one of the original posters from that fest. It gave all the artist that were to be there. Most were there.. ei Stones, Eric Clapton, etc. The fest started about a week, maybe two later than scheduled. this was due to a bunch of legal hassels with the state and state police. We were all stuck at the Holiday Inn in Baton Rouge A lot of the artist had other gigs and could not come back after it started. I believe over 200,000 people showed showed up!! there was very little fresh water and very few porta johns!

 

Does anyone remember this fest?

 

No, but I would have loved to have attended .

 

Another good one:

August 30, 1969 - September 1, 1969 Dallas International Speedway

Peace from poor_old_dad (Aka POD)

 

Wow a show like that in ATL would be to good to be true it would seem....


It was a little before my time but that would have been cool as hell if that woulda went off like it was supposed to.


Fuckin' Dave Brubeck........

crazy

 

I was there :] I could write a book about the experience. Folks love to hear my stories about sneaking in past the bikers who were carrying brass knuckles and shotguns. The rain, the mud, the heat, the acid.. the ?? We survived!
I've been trolling the net for any kind of memorabelia, esp. pics.
Does anyone have any photos, posters? Pleeze?

Here are some photos: www.whitecloudworkshop.com/mccrea/

Here are some of the bands in the lineup but only a few actually played:

June 21-28, 1971
The Celebration of Life Festival, that continued until day 28, in McCrea, Louisiana, United States, with more than 50 thousand people; sets of ten of small groups had been presented, in its majority composites for blacks; known only John Sebastian, Chuck Barry, War, Jimmy Witherspoon, Stoneground, Bloodrock, The Amboy Dukes.
At the CELEBRATION OF LIFE rock festival in Pointe Coupe Parish,
Louisiana back about 1971 or 72 the whole region was inundated with
rain. But the teeming crowds around the stage got together as the rain
rolled in and chanted with clear intent to have the rain miss them. The
clouds parted overhead and it rained all around but not on the rock
festival. No miracle. Clouds respond very well to intent, that's all.
Life force in general responds to intent.
=====
Time Magazine
07-12-71
The Nation
Mud, Sweat and Tears in Louisiana
Jul. 12, 1971
It was billed as a "celebration of life," but the Louisiana rock festival near the town of McCrea may have marked the end of what began at Woodstock as a beatific American experience and deteriorated into something violent at Altamont and vapid at Powder Ridge. Last week's festival, which lasted only four days instead of the announced eight, was an American nightmare. To begin with, the festival was postponed for three days while the promoters wallowed in legal mire. The kids amused themselves by making human mud pies and bathing in the nude. Two youths drowned in the fast-rushing Atchafalaya River. State undercover narcotics agents circulated in the crowd and made more than 100 busts. One youth died in a hospital tent from a drug overdose. Meanwhile, dazed with blistering heat, and stultifying humidity, the estimated 50,000 youths who gathered to see Country Joe McDonald and John Sebastian were also choked by dust. For the Woodstock Nation, McCrea was a bleak experience of mud, sweat and tears.
=====
1971 - 50,000 attended the Celebration of Life rock concert, in McCrea, Louisana.
=====
28 Giugno 1971
Celebration of Life, Cypress Pointe Plantation, McCrea, vicino a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Con Amboy Dukes, BB King, Allman Brothers, Canned Heat, Chambers Brothers, Chuck Berry, Country Joe McDonald, Flyng Burrito Brothers, Ike & Tina Turner, It's A Beautiful Day, John Lee Hooker, Richie Havens, Roland Kirk e Taj Mahal

also Black Oak Arkasas, Savoy Brown, Ike and Tina Turner

 

I did not make the festival. But, I had several people crash at the farm on the way to and from the festival. All reports were good, (and muddy) as I recall.
How about some of that music? Is that possible?
Wazoo

 

small world - funny how you meet people at these things to be reunited....my mother and one of her closest "adult" friends were up late one night talking only to realize that they had met 25 years earlier at a joan baez concert where vince had brought a basket full of homemade bread to pass out to other listeners...my mother remembers him bringing the basket over to her and sharing some with her....funny thing is that they did not exchange names or see eachother until they were both married with kids who happened to grow up together, living in an entirely different part of the country - i hope that i might be able to share in these type of memories throughout my life too, peace