Pick a Day

Music History Events: Festivals

March 16, 1972 The Dripping Springs Reunion festival kicks off in a field near Austin, Texas. Envisioned as the Woodstock of country music, the 3-day event features performances by Willie Nelson, Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe, Kris Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn, Buck Owens and Dottie West. The festival is poorly promoted and a huge flop, with attendance estimated at about 20,000 (combined) when at least 180,000 were expected. Two years later, Willie Nelson uses the same site for the first of his Fourth of July Picnic concerts, which becomes a popular annual event and helps establish Austin as a music destination.

August 30, 1970 Jimi Hendrix rocks the Isle of Wight Festival in his last British concert appearance. The show is plagued by technical problems, with the guitarist's amplifier picking up signals from the security radios. Other artists appearing onstage include Free, Joan Baez and The Moody Blues. The festival closes with a dawn performance by Richie Havens, who also opened at Woodstock.

August 26, 1970 The five-day Isle of Wight festival kicks off in England, boasting a very impressive lineup, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Jethro Tull, Miles Davis, Emerson, Lake And Palmer, The Doors, The Who, Spirit, The Moody Blues, Chicago, Procol Harum, Sly and the Family Stone, Free, and in his last concert appearance in England, Jimi Hendrix.More

December 6, 1969 The Rolling Stones headline the Altamont concert at a speedway in California. It's a free event with Jefferson Airplane and Santana also on the bill, but it turns violent when the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, who are hired as security, kill a crowd member. The concert is documented in The Stones movie Gimme Shelter.More

September 13, 1969 At the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival, host Kim Fowley starts a rock tradition when he asks the crowd to hold up lighters for Eric Clapton and John Lennon.More

August 18, 1969 Jimi Hendrix closes out Woodstock with an early morning performance of "Hey Joe." The festival headliner, he was supposed to play the previous night, but when it ran long, he ended up taking the stage on a Monday morning. His set includes a scorching rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner."More

August 17, 1969 Woodstock moves into day three, with performances by Joe Cocker; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Blood, Sweat & Tears; and Country Joe & the Fish, who perform their famous "Fish Cheer."

August 16, 1969 It's Day 2 of Woodstock, featuring performances by the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and Santana. One memorable moment comes during The Who's set, when the activist Abbie Hoffman interrupts their set and grabs the microphone. After saying a few words about fellow activist John Sinclair, Pete Townshend hits him with his guitar.

August 15, 1969 It's Day 1 of the Woodstock festival on Max Yasgur's 60-acre farm in Bethel, New York (the festival was originally going to be in Woodstock, New York, so they kept the name). Day 1 doesn't have the biggest names, but massive crowds make it clear that something's happening here. Artists to appear this day include Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Tim Hardin and Arlo Guthrie.

December 28, 1968 Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Steppenwolf and the Grateful Dead, land in Hallandale, Florida's Gulfstream Park to entertain 100,000 fans at Miami Pop Festival II, the East Coast's first major rock festival.More

July 16, 1967 Arlo Guthrie debuts "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival. The song runs 18 minutes long and tells a true (but greatly exaggerated) story about how he was arrested one Thanksgiving morning for illegal dumping. The ticket later made him ineligible for the draft, keeping him out of the Vietnam War. Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Janis Ian, and Tom Paxton also play the festival this day.

June 16, 1967 The first Monterey International Pop festival begins at the County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. It's the first of many big Rock festivals, with The Who, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and The Animals among those performing. Many consider it the beginning of the "Summer of Love."More

January 21, 1966 The first Trips Festival, a three-day event, begins at the Longshoreman's Hall in San Francisco. It's a landmark event in the evolution of psychedelic music. More

July 25, 1965 Dylan plugs in! At the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan plays an electric set for the first time, horrifying folkies everywhere.More

May 17, 1963 The very first Monterey Folk Festival begins at the Monterey Fairgrounds in California. Over the weekend, Bob Dylan makes his first West Coast performance, Jerry Garcia's band wins an amateur competition, and Janis Joplin draws a crowd on the second stage.More

July 15, 1962 Héctor Angulo, a Cuban student attending the Manhattan School of Music, plays the song "Guantanamera" for Pete Seeger during the Folk Festival of the Catskills at Camp Woodland in Phoenicia, New York, where Angulo is working as a counselor for the summer. Seeger learns the song and adds it to his repertoire, introducing it to American audiences.

June 25, 2023 Elton John headlines the Glastonbury Festival, where he tells the crowd it may be his last show in England. A record 7.6 million tune in to watch on the BBC.

March 16, 2016 First Lady Michelle Obama delivers the keynote address at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, promoting her "Let Girls Learn" initiative and launching the star-studded Diane Warren-penned anthem "This Is For My Girls."More

September 18, 2011 At the Austin City Limits festival, Awolnation lead singer Aaron Bruno does a little crowd surfing, using a boogie board to actually surf on top of the crowd before performing their apropos hit "Sail."More

September 7, 2008 While performing the song "Morning Glory" at the V Festival in Toronto, Noel Gallagher of Oasis is attacked by a concert-goer who rushes the stage and pushes him into his monitor. The band continues the show, but Gallagher is taken to a hospital that night to treat injuries to his ribs. He suffers a fractured rib and ligament damage, which forces the cancellation of several Oasis concerts.

April 29, 2007 Rage Against The Machine reunite to close the Coachella Festival, their first show in seven years.

April 30, 2006 Madonna plays a festival for the first time when she appears at Coachella.

October 22, 2000 R.E.M. returns to their hometown of Athens, Georgia, where they play three songs on the courthouse steps as part of a local festival called Land Aid, which is an effort to better the community.

August 14, 1998 The "A Day in the Garden" festival (which lasts three days) kicks off in Bethel, New York, where the original Woodstock took place 29 years earlier. A mix of rock legends (Pete Townshend, Stevie Nicks) and new bands (Third Eye Blind, The Goo Goo Dolls) play the event.More

June 4, 1998 Ray Charles reunites with his legendary touring band to perform in celebration of his 50th year in show business at the 15th annual Chicago Blues Festival in Grant Park.

August 16, 1997 The seventh annual Lollapalooza tour comes to a close at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, with Korn, Snoop Dogg and Tool headlining. With alternative music on the wane, it's the last Lollapalooza until 2003, when a more limited version of the tour is launched.

August 17, 1996 The ENIT Festival, organized by Perry Farrell after breaking ties with Lollapalooza, kicks off in Holmdel, New Jersey with Farrell's band Porno For Pyros headlining. It's one of the first ventures to sell tickets on the Internet, but poor planning dooms the festival and it plays just four dates.

June 3, 1990 The Big Day free festival takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, with Wet Wet Wet, Deacon Blue, Hothouse Flowers, Sheena Easton, Texas, Hue and Cry, John Martyn, Eddi Reader, The Average White Band and others. Channel 4 TV runs a six-hour live broadcast from the event.

June 21, 1982 The first "Fête de la Musique," a music festival also known as "World Music Day," is launched in Paris. Unlike corporate festivals, this one is about street music, and free to the public. The festival returns every June 21 and spreads throughout the world in various forms.

June 16, 1970 The organizers of the Woodstock music festival report that they have lost over $1.2 million on the event (money which they will later make up through movie and soundtrack rights).