Newport Pop Festival - The Newport Pop Festival 1968

The Newport Pop Festival 1968

The first Newport Pop Festival was held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, on the weekend of August 3–4, 1968. It is believed to have been the first pop music concert attended by more than 100,000 paying concertgoers.

The 1968 event was originally scheduled to be held inside the Orange County Fairgrounds in an outdoor pavilion. The fairgrounds are on Newport Boulevard just a short distance from Newport Beach, thus the name. The 1968 event advance ticket sales were triple what was expected and it became evident that there was no place inside the fairgrounds that a stage could be set up where even over 25,000 people could see the show let alone the near 100,000 now expected. In the last three days before the show it was moved to one of the adjoining parking lots of the fairgrounds. Fencing, staging, sanitation, and food concessions had to be organized in just a three-day period. None of the commercial concessionaires were prepared for the event and they all ran out of food and drink half the way through the first day. Water was provided throughout the event by garden hoses from inside the fairgrounds but attendees had to give up their viewing spot to go for the water and provide their own containers. There were plenty of porta-pottys available at the rear of the hastily-assembled "grounds". There was no shade in the primary viewing area and partiers were sunburned. The weather was a typical August sunny Southern California day. Those without hotel reservations had no place to stay. Fortunately, City officials helped to alleviate some of the problems by designating a 32-acre (130,000 m2) area of the fairgrounds as an emergency camp site. They also brought in portable toilets and water tanks. This particular event inaugurated some of the problems rock festival promoters would face in the future.

Harvey "Humble Harve" Miller, one of Los Angeles Top-40 disc jockeys (on 93 KHJ-AM) was used by the promoters to promote the show and hosted the event with Wavy-Gravy. Wesco productions (West Coast productions) consisted of Mark Robinson, Gary Schmidt and Al Schmidt although Humble Harv was used on advertising for promotional purposes. Tom Neito of Scenic Sounds Productions also assisted in securing the fairgrounds and was paid a fee and received some promotional billing. Mark Robinson had been involved with Bob Blodget in staging a much smaller similar weekend festival in 1967 in Los Angeles. There never was a 2nd edition of this event and its prominence faded from memory until, on August 4, 2008, Jeff Overley penned a feature article for the Orange County Register that commemorated the 40th anniversary of the event.

The big hits with the crowd were Tiny Tim, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe McDonald, The Chambers Brothers, and Steppenwolf.

Mark Robinson went on to promote a similar show in 1969 with Jimi Hendrix called Newport 69 and later became an attorney and practised law with Melvin Belli. Al and Gary teamed up with Bill Quarry, Alfie Zaner and Rich Romello and produced the San Francisco International Pop Festival in Pleasonton at the Alemeda County Fairgrounds on October 25 and 26 of 1968. That show drew over 40,000 in attendance and featured Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Chamber Brothers, José Feliciano, Deep Purple, Procul Harum, Johnny Rivers, Iron Butterfly, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Canned Heat, The Grass Roots, Rejoice, and Fraternity of Man. After the show Al Schmidt continued in non rock 'n' roll business until he died aged 83 in the late 1990s, and Gary Schmidt entered the nightclub business and continued to promote smaller events throughout Northern California including two more festivals with attendance in the 25–30,000 range, The Labor Day Weekend Music and Arts Festival in Carson City, Nevada in 1972 and Super Sun Bust Summer of 1973 at the Eugene Speedway (Oregon). For some of these productions Schmidt teamed up with Bill Quarry a well known early East Bay promoter Bill Quarry (see "Teens N Twenties" and "The East Bay Scene, Garage Bands from the '60s, Then and Now"). Schmidt also operated a well known rock venue nightclub, the Odyssey Room, in Sunnyvale, California from 1969 to 1989 (see Odyssey Room Revisited) and a venue just outside of Reno, Nevada on Mt. Rose called the Reindeer Lodge which as of 2010 still has occasional shows. Mark Robison, at the time a Stanford student, promoted a few more concerts and went on to finish Law School and is now a Nationally renown and accredited attorney practicing law throughout the United States with a home office located where else but in Orange County

The 1968 event, however, attracted a lot of media attention at the time. When Rolling Stone Magazine published an article on the event in their September 14, 1968 edition, they said:

Newport Pop Festival Drags on in Dust and Heat: Dead, Country Joe, Crosby, pie fight weekend's highlights

Among other highlights that concert-goers recall are when helicopters flew overhead, dropping flowers on the audience. And, on Sunday, Sonny and Cher arrived by helicopter and were later booed off the stage.

Bands Performing at the Festival:

Saturday, August 3, 1968

Alice Cooper, Canned Heat, Chambers Brothers, Charles Lloyd Quartet, Country Joe and the Fish, Electric Flag, James Cotton Blues Band, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sonny & Cher, Steppenwolf, Tiny Tim.

During the Charles Lloyd Quartet set, Lee Michaels and Frosty began playing on an alternate stage at the rear of the crowd. Most of the attendees turned around and watched them as the Lloyd music was not in the style they had come to listen to.

Sunday, August 4, 1968

Blue Cheer, Eric Burdon & the Animals, Grateful Dead, Illinois Speed Press, Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Byrds, Things to Come.

Bands that may have performed at the festival Lovin' Spoonful, Rhinoceros, Sky Pilot and The Turtles were not listed on the official poster for the event, there is published evidence that indicates that these bands may have played at the festival.

It is believed that the 1969 festival was intended to be the successor to the Orange County event, hoping to capitalize on the brand name and market momentum generated in 1968. Unfortunately, this move of venue was necessary because the 1968 event had fallen in disfavor with the local community leaders. Three days after the 1968 event, the Costa Mesa City Council vowed to prevent a Newport Pop Festival encore. "To say that we would not like it back here would be the understatement of the year," Costa Mesa Mayor Alvin Pinkley was quoted as saying.