Celebration of Life

I just googled "Celebration of Life" and was happy to see this forum and hear from others that were at the festival! I also found it funny on how many different takes there were on the same few days.

I was there, with about 11 others - ages 18 to 23 +/-, all from Jersey. What an experience! One I'll never forget and am glad I got to experience!!!

First we stopped in a small town on our way there to get some snacks and everyone came out of their stores to look at the hippies. Then we were told there was a delay, so to stay put. We were sent to a state park, where the locals did not like our arrival, so they road past us all night, giving us a hard time! That was scarey.

Then the next night we made it to the spot for the concert, but it was still delayed, so they lined all our cars along a levy, where we stayed that night. The next day we finally got to set up camp in the festival grounds and then had a blast!! Swam naked in the river, went mud sliding, listened to what bands did decide to stay (most left because of the delay). Had a good time with the love of my life and a lot of good friends. (I have to admit, I was high for most of it, so I don't remember a lot of the 4 or 5 days!)

When we got home we were told the festival made the news and there was suppose to be all kinds of violence there, etc. We didn't experience any of that. We just had a great time getting away, listening to music, and being with friends! I'm glad I went and I'm glad I got to grow up in that type of environment. Does anyone know of any posters or any other memorabilia that can be purchased from that festival?

 

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 e altri.
I promoters del "Toronto Rock & Roll Revival", dell'Atlanta Pop Festival" e del "New Orleans Pop Festival" unirono le forze per organizzare un ambizioso progetto: un festival di otto giorni (21-28.6.71) su un'appartata penisola del fiume Atchafalaya. Fin dall'inizio ci furono problemi: gli organizzatori non riuscirono a ottenere il permesso per l'apertura del festival fino al 23 giugno; il primo concerto si tenne solo il giorno seguente e la manifestazione chiuse i battenti il 27, dopo una non stop notturna cui pare i Pink Floyd non abbiano partecipato. L'evento terminò un giorno prima a seguito dell'invasione di due bande di motociclisti. Alcuni di loro furono accusati di tentato omicidio, istigazione alla rissa e aggressione a pubblico ufficiale.

from http://www.pinkfloydsound.it/1971.htm

hard to find any links to this fest but I really wanted to see who played.

editops, had only got to page one of this thread before I had to run off and google it. so anyway....

 

Hi Virgin Post here is anyone still listening (I guess I do give it up that easy)? I was there. Does not sound as if Delta"whatever" was there though by this comment "It gave all the artist that were to be there. Most were there.. ei Stones, Eric Clapton, etc.". Clapton or the Stones were not and to the best of my memories were never supposed to be there.

Will be happy to post some memories (bands played, exp etc) if anyone is still paying attention.
I also have searched for a post (used to have one) on eBay for years with no luck. Cheers Peace fred
PS Sorry but I for one do not believe you can have a rock festival in a football stadium.

 

I was there! I remember that there was a lot of no shows for bands. The only way to get food was to hike about a half of mile to a country store. Only three or four people were allowed in the store at one time. Still have my Celebration of Life T-shirt!

 

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

Yeah, Me too!

 

I have been searching the internet for others who were at this festival. Finally found this link.


I came out from California with other artists to sell our wares. I know there was a delay and that some bands cancelled, but I mostly remember a great time by the river with some amazing people.

Some memories:
Watching a simultaneous fireworks display and heat lightning show on the opposite horizon. It was hard to know which way to look.
Seeing a French girl pee standing up like a guy.
Camping in the rain. There was a fierce storm one night.

After the festival, my friends and I (along with an unlucky hitchhiker) were arrested in New Orleans (We were stopped for an alleged tail light out, but I think it was just our VW Microbus). We were thrown directly into Parish Prison where we spent 7 days and nights, and only released because one of the guys I was with got off a lucky phone call...but that's another story.

 

I went there in a VW bus also.I remember guys in rental trucks selling drugs out of the back and then throwing free candy to the crowd. Some great Thai and schrooms.The only band I remember was "It's A Beautiful Day". They were coming on at sunrise as I was coming down. We had made several candles to pay for our way from Texas to Florida including our stop at C.O.L. I remember lots of good times there,to bad other people didn't.

 

I want to thank you for the poster it sure helps my memory and will prove to my son his poor old dad is not crazy. Or maybe not completly.Still alive and well in Texas.

 

love your life

 

Awesome memories there folks! My parents stuck out LA with young kids weren't able to attend anything after the 60's ended. I'm sure they would have had responsibilities been put on the back burner and we drifted around but.....

Would be awesome if these old promoters looking to reawaking their love of concerts could put together another Celebration of Life, keep the corporate sponsorship down to a minimum (or just the socially responsible companies) and pull in a few of the more lib artists for a three day festival (mix of old music, electronica, world beats, local talents, etc). Damn that would be so sweet not quite but a taste of the old times.

Eh...just a dream I have.

 

Wow- never thought I would find another human that was there. Four of us in the Army traveled in a Shelby Mustang from Ft. Polk to the festival. I still have a newspaper with our tent on the front cover. The only bands I remember were Country Joe and the Chambers Brothers. One of the groups next to us was one of the deaths at the festival.

We never paid to get in to it. Traveled through woods and went over a "snow fence" and we were in. We could hear the sound and smell the pot miles away. Loved swimming in the river- very fast current. What a blast!

 

I was there for six days before the music ever started. Had a great time. First campsite on Atchafalya River outside fence. Worked inside for several days. Was to work backstage secruity. Just stayed outside and partied on the levee, that's where the action was. The little country store was cleaned out. People ran out of food. You could get any drugs you wanted for a can of beans. It rained every day at 4:00 PM. State troopers just said hello to naked people smoking pot. It was originally supposed to last 8 days. It would have dwarfed Woodstock, but the legal injuntions screwed it all up. If anybody remembers the guy that led over a thousand in for free one night before the motorcycle gang arrived, that was me. Seeing all those flashlights coming along the river was my best memory. I have added a couple of photos, sorry for the yellow tint as the film wasn't processed for about three years.
aoxo

 

We were at the Head Inn sleeping on the floor in the french quarter.Went with the road crew and helped build the stage.Spent most nights working stage secruity with the folks on the ledge.Diane says the mga broke down in chipley,and they rode there thumbs to the festival.THey had tickets.

 

oh my gosh - WE were living at the Head Inn before the festival. I was trying to remember who was there at that time. I was with a girl with red hair named colleen, my name is karl. we had the "apartment" upstairs. do you remember us by chance? Did you play any of the intense RISK cames we used to have? JB would get pissed if he lost. we went back to NOLA over two years later, married with a son. went by 549 1/2 dumaine street, and JB was sitting up on the balconlly reading a newspaper. what a trip.

 

i was there for about 10 days. what a trip! from the time i started hitchkiking there, til the time i finally made it back home, totally surreal. from sneaking in in in the trunk of a 56 chevy, with motorcycle gang members thumping on the trunk, to the guy in the elephant pen who was selling elephant manure, claiming it would get you high(no i made no purchases, but witnessed a few), to the mud people, the endless supply of free drugs.
one experience i will never forget: someone gave me something i thought was acid, i took it. it was definitely psychedelic, whatever it was. i sat on the outer edge of the crowd, and could hear, and follow, every conversation that was taking place in that huge crowd. that was one of the strangest experiences of my life.
then when it was all over, i got a ride. the guy let me off in the bayous, in the middle of nowhere, on a small blacktop road, just as the sun was going down. i will never forget the shadowy shapes of the alligators and watermocassins as they came up to join me on the road. it was soon pitch black and i was totally alone with natures finest, hoping they felt as peaceful as myself.

 

:jester:

Peace be with yu.

Love one another.

arty:
Peace

 

[When you want to post a reply, where do you put it?

] Does anyone remember this fest?


[/QUOTE]

 

Atlanta was HOT!!, much hotter than Celebration.

Thank goodness some rain came at Atlanta.

Nightfall. Raining. But then the rain stopped. And just as it did, the Chambers Brothers walked on stage. The place was...... ready. When they went into "Time Has Come Today", that hillside rocked from that second, through the rest of the night and more.

It was one of several "magic moments" at Atlanta. Moments that you only get when EVERYONE is in tune with the feeling, with the music, and, most of all, with the magic.


"Celebration of Life", unfortunately, didn't have the "magic" of an Atlanta or a Woodstock. Some good, but, as an example, I'll never forget Ted Nugent coming on around 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning (think it was the last day. At least, for us it was.) Ted was screaming, cussin' everyone for being asleep. "Get out of those "GOD...." sleeping bags. Your gonna' listen to Ted "F...in" Nugent. GET UP!" Had his amp turned up so loud that the electric lines would hum everytime he hit a chord.

I thought he had gone insane.

But, it was still fun.

J

 

Am going to put some of the 2-trk masters on E-Bay. I need to hold on to the 16 trk. Found all 28 reels of tape. We ran them 24/7 as long as there was an artist playing. I found that Ted Nugent master. That was the last day. Remember "It's A Beautiful Day" was the last artist. I fell out just as they came on and blew all the speakers in our truck. That is when the cops cut all the mic lines and the show was over.

 

I was at the Celebration of Life Fesitval for 9 days, Our van broke down in Tenn and we were 400 miles off course because we were too stoned to read a map, and then we started hitchhiking. We made it and some guy said he found a back way in that hadn't been closed yet, so I jumped in with two friends and we got in early. There were only about 4 or 5 thousand at that time. We waiting, smoked, swam, smoked, sunned, smoked, swam, smoked, slept, smoked. Down at the river where we were swimming nude boats from the area were giving the locals river tours of us freaks swimming naked. Most had cameras taking pictures. I wish they would post a few pictures. I remember bands starting to play when they sun went down and most of the night. I can't recall who played but we loved it all. At one point we got hungry and the food vendors had the prices so high a mini riot broke out and we tore down the fences and people starting throwing out the vendors food to the crowds, it was great. Finally they opened the gates and people starting flooding in. I guess the police thought it was better to get it over with then to have people waiting for weeks along the roads to get in. I also recall the original location was supposed to be on an island somewhere along the Mississippi river, but the festival was moved a couple times ,I think out of fear and that's how it ended up further south near Baton Rouge. I can recall some really big storms and due to the self medication, things seemed larger then maybe they were. Loved all the topless hard body girls walking around, thanks for memories ladies. I was 17 at the time. When we left at the end we got back to our broken down van which had been fixed while we were away and then went to Washington DC for the first annual smoke in. We ended up tear gased and run off the parks grounds late at night in retaliation for someone throwing a bottle earlier in the day and hitting a cop right on the head. The cops came rushing into the crowd with horses to find the person, but that was impossible. It was later that night that they ran us off while hitting people with their clubs. I finally made my way home to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Later that summer I hitchhiked up to Minnisota and hopped a freight train to Tacoma, Washington to vist a friend wounded in Vietnam. We wrapped our heads in bandages and put on hospital gowns and limped down to the cafateria to eat free. Many of the not so wounded helped us out and of course they were drafted and didn't much care, the hair standards and beards were overlooked in the hospital. After that I hitched down to LA and back to Indiana. What a summer, 38 states before I was 18 years old. It would take a month to write it all down, we were stopped by the police in every state and questioned. They just wanted us to keep moving.