Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music

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The Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music was a music festival held from June 27-29, 1970 at the Royal Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet , Somerset , in south-west England . Hip bands such as Jefferson Airplane , Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin performed . An “alternative festival” took place outside the actual festival area; there the Pink Fairies and Hawkwind played on the back of a truck.

history

The festival started at noon on Saturday June 27th and ended around 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning. On Friday evening, music was played from records for the visitors who had already arrived, which also happened between many of the performances. The program included the most famous bands and musicians from the USA and Great Britain at the time , including Santana , The Flock , Led Zeppelin ( headliner ), Hot Tuna , Country Joe McDonald , Colosseum , Jefferson Airplane (with a shortened set), The Byrds (with an acoustic set ), The Moody Blues (performance did not take place), Dr. John (with acoustic set), Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention , Canned Heat , It's a Beautiful Day , Steppenwolf , Johnny Winter , John Mayall with Peter Green , Pink Floyd , Pentangle , Fairport Convention , Keef Hartley and the Maynard Ferguson Big Band .

The festival was organized by Fred and Wendy Bannister, who had hosted the smaller Bath Festival of Blues the year before. The 1970 event attracted significantly more spectators with around 150,000, but also caused significant logistical problems. In addition, the profit was significantly lower than expected.

Bath Festival 1970 - Donovan's Sunday morning performance

Due to the large number of spectators, the access roads for the trucks with the conveyor equipment were difficult to pass, and this resulted in considerable delays. On Sunday morning, Donovan filled the void by appearing unannounced. Many appearances took place late on Monday night and some had to be shortened. The last appearance of Dr. John took place at dawn.

An "alternative festival" took place in a neighboring field; there the Pink Fairies and Hawkwind played on the back of a truck. This was a forerunner of many “free festivals” in the 1970s.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Bath Festival on ukrockfestivals.com (English)
  2. ↑ Collapsing stages, Hell's Angels, and a band called Led Zeppelin on loudersound.com (English)
  3. ↑ British band Pinkwind - members of The Pink Fairies and Hawkwind on a flatbed truck at the Bath Festival of Blues 1970 on alamy.de/