Pick a Day

Music History Events: Festivals

August 16, 1969 The Beckenham Arts Lab holds the Free Festival in Beckenham, London. One one of the performers is David Bowie, who memorializes the concert in his song "Memory of a Free Festival." The festival is largely forgotten by history, probably because it happened at the same exact time as Woodstock in the United States.

August 15, 1969 On the day Woodstock begins, Bob Dylan sails on the Queen Elizabeth 2 for the Isle of Wight in England. Fed up with the "druggies" who'd been showing up at his house at all hours, he wants nothing to do with Woodstock and opts instead to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival two weeks later.

June 29, 1969 The free-to-attend Harlem Cultural Festival kicks off in Mount Morris Park with headliners The 5th Dimension, who perform their #1 hit "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In." Five more shows take place over the summer, but footage doesn't appear until 2021, when it's documented in the movie Summer Of Soul.

August 31, 1968 Jefferson Airplane headline the first Isle of Wight Festival, a one-day event that grows to two days the following year and five in 1970.