NathanThe Fans Kept Pouring In
The 600,000 swarm of fans started to come together at the Watkins Glen Raceway just a day before the show. There were endless traffic jams, blocking the roads everywhere. Some people even decided to walk to the venue and left their cars on the road. There was a festival that took place in a raceway a few years ago with 300,000 in attendance, the Altamont Speedway Free Festival.
Abandoned Cars Everywhere
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The Allman Brothers’ tour manager even spoke about the festival to Alan Paul of Parade revealed many things. He claimed, “When we first got there we were able to drive in and out of the site, but the road became like Armageddon overnight,” he adds, “It was like there had been a nuclear attack and people had just abandoned their cars.”
Soundcheck… Testing 1, 2, 3
The festival date was set to take place on the 28th of July. However, there were thousands of fans who decided to show up a day early,i.e, the 27th. This led to the bands having to do their soundchecks right then and there for the quickly increasing crowd. Robbie Robertson from The Band, felt a bit nervous because the huge crowd was something he had never anticipated.
Unforgettable Soundcheck
The Dead’s soundcheck switched up to two long jam sets. One of them ended up as a retrospective CD box set of the band’s history. Allman Brother Butch Trucks speaks about this unforgettable soundcheck: “That afternoon rehearsal ended up being my most powerful memory because in daylight you could see 600,000 people stretched out in front of you and my God! What a sight!”
Make Do
Just like the other famous festival Woodstock, the people who came here were ready to camp out and forget about their problems while jamming and listening to some amazing music. The speedway that hosted the event ended up getting converted to a campground for a number of days. Many of the fans slept in tents, some made use of sleeping bags, and some had no trouble to rest on the floor.
A Historic Festival
There was ample food, booze, and drugs. The festival even faced a little bit of rain and the venue got a little muddy, but this did not result in the attendees getting their spirits down. The festival turned out to be a very peaceful gathering with no fights happening between the festival goers. It was truly one of the most iconic moments even in the history of rock music. We cannot relate much as there are so many ways to listen and share the music files of our favorite artists these days.