Pick a Day

Music History Events: Festivals

May 23, 1970 Grateful Dead play outside North America for the first time, doing a 4-hour set at the Hollywood Music Festival in England. Mungo Jerry and Steppenwolf are also on the bill.

January 26, 1970 The Ourimbah rock festival, Australia's first, opens to an audience of 11,000. The festival results in 26 arrests.

August 19, 1969 Cleanup begins at Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York, where the Woodstock festival has finished up. Bulldozers are used to wrangle the trash into a pit, where it is burned.

August 14, 1969 It's the day before Woodstock, and thousands of people show up early and camp out.

June 20, 1969 Jimi Hendrix headlines the Newport Pop Festival, which is marred by violence as police take action to stop the gate-crashers.

December 26, 1968 D.A. Pennebaker's documentary Monterey Pop, which chronicles the 1967 Monterey International Pop Music Festival (where The Who smashed their instruments and Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire) opens in theaters.

August 4, 1968 The Newport Pop Festival attracts 100,000 with Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and The Animals.

August 12, 1967 Fleetwood Mac make their stage debut at the National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor, England, alongside such acts as Donovan, Cream, The Small Faces, and Chicken Shack, featuring a young Christine Perfect (later known as Christine McVie).

June 10, 1967 Outdoor rock: California's Magic Mountain Music Festival, considered the first rock music festival, features Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and The Byrds - the crowd of 15,000 is dwarfed by the 200,000 at the Monterey Pop Festival the following weekend.

June 19, 1965 The Who, Spencer Davis, and Marianne Faithfull appear at the Uxbridge Folk & Blues Festival.

July 17, 1954 The Newport Jazz Festival, the world's first such event, debuts on the tennis courts of the Newport Casino in Rhode Island.

July 29, 2021 After postponing the previous year's festival due to the coronavirus outbreak, Lollapalooza returns in full force for a four-day music event in Chicago's Grant Park. But there's a catch: Festivalgoers must provide proof of vaccinations or negative COVID tests to gain entry. Those who have tested negative but are unvaccinated also have to wear a mask.More

June 10, 2017 Gorillaz stage their first Demon Dayz Festival, which takes place at Dreamland amusement park in Margate, Kent, England. Performers include Mavis Staples, De La Soul and Carly Simon, all of whom appeared on their album Humanz.

October 8, 2016 Robert Plant and St. Vincent play the Festival of Disruption in Los Angeles, an event staged by the director David Lynch that includes film screenings and meditation.

June 26, 2015 Florence + the Machine become the first female-fronted band to headline the Glastonbury festival since Shakespear's Sister in 1992.

August 17, 2012 The first Knotfest goes down in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Curated by the band Slipknot, it features amusement park entertainment and lots of music, including performances by Deftones and Lamb Of God.

September 17, 2011 Huey Lewis & the News play at the 54th Monterey Jazz Festival in California.

June 11, 2011 Bonnaroo celebrates its 10th anniversary by hosting a performance of Dr. John's Desitively Bonnaroo, the 1974 album that inspired the festival's name. The performance reunites the New Orleans R&B veteran with the album's producer, Allen Toussaint, and legendary backing band The Meters. More

September 25, 2010 Bush perform at the second Epicenter Music Festival in Fontana, California. This concert marks the band's first live appearance since 2002.

April 17, 2010 When Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros frontman Alex Ebert takes the stage at Coachella, he clumsily knocks a microphone stand into the crowd. A guy in the audience catches it with his forehead, and blood spills all over the place. Ebert, horrified, gives the guy his sportcoat and his shirt to staunch the bleeding, and performs the set topless. It proves a breakout performance for the band, whose song "Home" starts showing up everywhere.

June 28, 2008 During her performance at Glastonbury Festival, Amy Winehouse punches a fan she mistakenly believes had thrown a hat at her beehive.More

August 10, 2007 Laura Marling shares the stage with other Indie artists like Crystal Castles and Mystery Jets at the first-ever Underage Festival in Victoria Park, London. The festival, which grew out of a series of club nights in the Elephant and Castle district of South London, is open only to 13-17 year olds. At 17, Marling fits right in.

July 23, 2005 For the first time, Lollapalooza stays put, with the first of two shows at Grant Park in Chicago. Pixies, Billy Idol and Weezer all perform.

November 13, 2004 After several years of feuding, the rap group A Tribe Called Quest get back together for a reunion show at the Rock the Bells festival. It's also the night when their friend and fellow rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard from the Wu-Tang Clan dies. A Tribe Called Quest open their show with a tribute to ODB and perform some of Wu Tang's songs to start the set.

August 15, 2004 At their Coventry Festival in the group's home state of Vermont, Phish play what they say is their last show, ending with the song "The Curtain With." The breakup proves temporary: in 2009, the band gets back together.

July 5, 2003 The Lollapalooza tour returns for the first time since 1997 with a show in Noblesville, Indiana. Original headliner Jane's Addiction is on the bill along with Audioslave and Incubus. The tour limps along, plagued by poor ticket sales and cancelled shows.

January 29, 2002 In Colorado Springs, Linkin Park launch the first Projekt Revolution festival, which runs every year through 2004, then returns in 2007, 2008 and 2011. Artists to play the festival over the years include Korn, My Chemical Romance, and Chris Cornell.

July 15, 2001 Vanilla Ice opens for Insane Clown Posse at the second annual Gathering Of The Juggalos, this time in Toledo, Ohio (they aren't welcome back in Novi, Michigan, site of the first one). Once again, ICP's headline set is cut short when fans rush the stage.

July 25, 1999 Woodstock '99 comes to a fiery conclusion as the crowd loots and burns anything they can find while the Red Hot Chili Peppers play the last set. Poor conditions and a mostly collage-age crowd swelled by testosterone and nu metal have made the riot pretty much inevitable. Remarkably, there are relatively few injuries; when police arrive, the crowd seems more than happy to leave.

June 27, 1999 Coldplay, Muse and David Gray all play the New Bands Tent at the Glastonbury Festival. Main stage acts include Blondie, R.E.M., and Manic Street Preachers.