Vortex I
In 1970, President Richard Nixon was scheduled to speak at an American Legion convention in Portland, Oregon, promoting the continuation of the Vietnam War. A huge anti-war demonstration was planned to be held in Portland. State officials were concerned about potential violence.
Some local counter-culture anti-violence groups proposed to Oregon's governor, Tom McCall, to permit a rock festival to be held in a state park during Nixon's visit, to draw potential protestors away from Portland. The Republican governor agreed, and surprisingly, he agreed for police to turn a blind eye toward nudity and drug use at the festival.
Thus was born Vortex I: A Biodegradable Festival of Life, the only state-sponsored rock festival in America.
The festival was held from Aug. 28 to Sept. 3, 1970 at Milo McIver State Park. Admission was free, and there were no official attendance records, but estimates range from 30,000 to 100,000 people. Meanwhile, Nixon cancelled his visit to the American Legion convention, and the Portland protests drew only about 1,000 people with no violence, so the festival achieved its purpose.
Nudity was commonplace at the festival, especially at a mud sauna tent (above).
(Photo by LIFE photographer Arthur Schatz)
Then you could head to the river to wash off the mud.
The video above contains extracts from a program about the festival shown on Oregon Public Broadcasting (with a soundtrack that I borrowed from another video about the festival). The full program can be seen at https://www.pbs.org/video/oregon-experience-vortex-i/
No famous rock groups performed at the festival because it was put together at the last minute. Instead, the musicians were mostly local groups from Oregon and California. But the audience didn't care. They were there to have a good time, and they did.
