Stompin 76 Music Festival

Stompin 76 Music Festival was known as "the greatest Bluegrass festival in history". The 3 day camp-out music took place Friday through Sunday, August 6, 7 and 8 in 1976, seven miles north of Galax, VA at the New river Jam Site owned by the Lawson family. Not associated with the performer Doyle Lawson. 1976 was the year of the US Bicentennial and young people were looking for a party. That summer the big concert tour staged in large arenas and stadiums was Elton John and Dave Mason. Stompin 76 was promoted at these concerts from Boston to Miami. The promotion is almost as legendary as the event itself.

Over 150,000 attended Stompin' 76; including many who were clogged on Carroll County, VA area roads. Others parked on the interstate and walked up to 11 miles to reach the epic event. This one great music festival would come to be known as "The Woodstock Of Bluegrass".

For three days in the summer of the American Bicentennial, 90 miles west of Roanoke, Virginia, just a stone's throw from the North Carolina border, bluegrass and blues abounded. Outdoor music festival lovers from all parts of the eastern US gathered for that historic weekend. Helicopters and motorcycles were used to get performers and supplies in and out of the rural site located next to the New River in Southwest Virginia.

Appearing on one stage: Bonnie Raitt, Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt & Nashville Grass, Vassar Clements Ry Cooder, John Hartford, Osborne Brothers, The Rowans, John Prine, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Doc & Merle Watson, The Dillards, Hickory Wind, New Grass Revival, Red, White and Bluegrass, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Papa John Creach, David Bromberg, Star Spangled Washboard Band, Eric Weisberg and Deliverance, Grass On The Rocks, Good Ol' Boys, Joe and Bing.

Three days of fun and music, all for only $12.00 advance/ $15.00 at the gate! As a result of the disturbance the event created in this rural community, the county instituted laws to control outdoor music festivals. The popularity of Stompin 76 is a contributing factor to the growth of the Galax Fiddler's Convention in the late 1970s.

Promoter Hal Abramson was a mere 21 years old at the time. He conceived the idea in mid-February 1976 at his roommate's Reisterstown, MD apartment. Abramson had tired of promoting Thin Lizzy, Golden Earring, Spirit, Niles Lofgren, Leslie West, Natalie Cole and a slew of now classic concerts, starting a year earlier at UMBC, Painter's Mill Music Fair and the Lyric Theater in Baltimore.

In 2010 Abramson said the 2,500-4,000 seat venues multiplied times the anemic $5.50-$7.50 going ticket price at the time, made those concerts fun but not necessarily profitable. He felt a major rock festival was needed. When he found out the cost of major rock acts, he decided on bluegrass with a touch of blues. It would be 3 days, there would be camping and 22 great bands. Stompin 76 was born.

With a Baltimore staff about his same age, Hal Abramson rented a Beechcraft Baron, an ex-Vietnam pilot and started promoted the event intensely throughout 20 states March 1, 1976. The huge attendance is attributed to the massive marketing, great line-up and a special summer. An unrelenting 21 week marketing campaign included dozens of eastern US radio stations, Rolling Stone/ Village Voice ads, newspaper ads, articles, aerial banners over major beaches and pervasive flyer/ poster campaigns at concerts made this was one of the original organized festival street teams. The posters said "Super Sound in Our Natural Amphitheater and Free Camping and Parking On Hundreds of Wooded Acres".

In 1998 an attendee from New Castle, VA named Pete said: "The strongest memories are the musical ones. Bonnie Raitt doing a searing 'Love Me Like A Man'. The Dillards doing a gospel number, their a cappella voices drifting through the Virginia countryside. These memories will stay in my soul forever."

In 2006, writing into the Stompin76 web site, Turtle said: "15 yrs old at the time. Traveled down from PA in a four vehicle caravan. Couldn't get any closer than a few miles from the music. Hiked to the music, when I came back my people moved camp. Didn't see them for 3 days. Run ins with Pagans bikers, Moonshine vendors, young ladies of questionable morals and flash floods. What a BIG time for a teenager."

Hal Abramson is now a concert and festival consultant residing in Maryland. 2006 was the 30th anniversary of this event. Hal stays in touch with Stompin fans and sells Stompin 76 tee shirts at the event's Official web site, stompin76.com. Many attendees and their decedents still talk about wild experiences and forging close relationships lasting a lifetime at the web site. "Bluegrass music did it!" said Abramson in 2010.