Festivals - Part 4

 Bull Island

The Bull Island rock festival in 1972 has been described by some as the worst rock festival ever, although there are other candidates for that prize.

Originally named the Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival and scheduled for Labor Day weekend in 1972 in Chandler, Indiana, a tiny town near Evansville, it was set to feature a galaxy of rock stars like the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, the Allman Brothers and Black Sabbath.  A crowd of 55,000 was expected.

Only problem: less than a week before the event, the town got a court injunction barring the event from happening anywhere in Indiana.  The festival promoters found a geographical loophole: a place called Bull Island that was actually a peninsula (not an island) next to the Wabash River that separates Indiana from Illinois.  Because the river had changed course, this piece of land, though on the Indiana side of the river, was legally part of Illinois.  But since it couldn't be accessed from Illinois, it was for practical purposes outside the law.

So that's where they held the festival, which then became known as the Bull Island Festival.  Problem solved, right?  Wrong.  When Labor Day weekend arrived, a quarter of a million people showed up – 5 times as many as anticipated.  Food and water were scarce, and sanitary facilities were inadequate, though drugs were plentiful.  And rain turned the festival grounds into a muddy pit.  Many of the musicians cancelled.  Still, there was always skinny-dipping in the Wabash River (above).

These photos, from the Rice Library of the University of Southern Indiana, were taken by Sonny Brown, photographer for the Evansville Courier newspaper.  Unlike many other photographers of rock festivals, Brown seems to have had no problem photographing male frontal nudity, like this photo, called "Half-dressed man by the Wabash River" ...

and "Naked man by the Wabash River" ...

and "Naked man drying off after skinny-dipping in the Wabash River" ...

and "Man playing with dog in the Wabash River" ...

and another view of the man playing with the dog.

So, was it really the worst rock festival ever?  Although some musicians cancelled, Ravi Shankar, the Eagles and Santana performed in the rain, and despite the miserable conditions, somehow most people who were there remember it with nostalgia.