Festivals - Part 5

 Powder Ridge

Powder Ridge has been called the rock festival that never happened.   To understand why, view this video clip from the Huntley-Brinkley nightly news on July 1, 1970.

Scheduled musicians included Sly and the Family Stone, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, the Allman Brothers, Little Richard, Jethro Tull, Janis Joplin, and Chuck Berry.  None of them showed up.

The crowd was told they would have to create their own show.  Although there was no music, there were plenty of drugs.

And there was a pond for swimming ...

(Photo by LIFE photographer John Dominis)

or floating ...

(Photo by LIFE photographer John Dominis)

or beating the heat ...

(Photo by LIFE photographer John Dominis)

Or just hanging out naked.

One scene, attested to by several witnesses, occurred in the woods nearby. A boy and a girl, both naked and approaching from different directions, met under the trees. On impulse they suddenly embraced. She dropped to her knees, he mounted her from behind, and after he had achieved his climax they parted—apparently without exchanging a word.

Well, there was nothing else to do.

It was a festival with sex, drugs and rock & roll – minus the rock & roll.  Said one participant, “It all goes to show that you can have a rock music festival without rock music.”