Seattle Pop Festival: Remembering “The Forgotten Woodstock”
Before there was Woodstock, there was Woodinville. In July 1969, thousands gathered to watch an all-star line-up at the first Seattle Pop Festival.
It’s been 50 years since thousands gathered in upstate New York to celebrate three days of peace and music at the first Woodstock festival, and yet there was another three-day festival that year, held just three weeks prior to Woodstock, that often gets forgotten: Seattle Pop Festival.
From 25 to 27 July 1969, local promoter Boyd Grafmyre staged Seattle Pop at Gold Creek Park in Woodinville, Washington, just a few miles outside of Seattle. It was the second successful major rock festival to occur in Washington within less than a year, after Grafmyre had previously helped organize the historic Sky River Rock Festival in 1968.
Listen to the Summer Of ’69 playlist on Spotify.
The year of the music festival
1969 was the year of the musical festival: Denver Pop Festival was followed by Atlanta Pop Festival and then Seattle Pop Festival, all leading up to Woodstock.
The concept behind Seattle Pop was to have 25 acts play over three days. Sometimes going to great lengths to achieve his ambitious goal, Grafmyre chartered a helicopter to fly The Doors from Seattle’s airport to the festival grounds, while renting a Cadillac convertible for Chuck Berry – the rock’n’roll pioneer’s preferred method of transportation.
For $6 a day – or $15 for the whole weekend – you could catch Led Zeppelin breaking America, and marvel at homegrown legends The Byrds, blues icon Bo Diddley, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Tim Buckley, The Guess Who, Santana, Ike, and Tina Turner, Vanilla Fudge, Alice Cooper, and Chicago Transit Authority (who later became Chicago), among many other rock luminaries and psychedelic acts of the day.
An estimated 50,000-70,000 festivalgoers descended upon Gold Creek Park to enjoy relative peace, music and “a certain amount of nudity”, said Grafmyre. As one of the first festivals to forego hiring police or off-duty officers as security, Grafmyre enlisted The Black Panthers to patrol Seattle Pop – a much smoother operation than Hells Angels’ provided at Altamont just a few months later, in December.
‘Sunday night was supposed to belong to The Doors’
The Seattle Pop Festival’s line-up was a mix of established acts, native groups from the Pacific Northwest, and even jazz legend Charles Lloyd. Some acts, like Led Zeppelin, went on to become rock legends, while others faded into obscurity, such as Crome Syrcus, a psychedelic Pacific Northwest band that broke up in 1973 and remain best known for their singles “Love Cycle” and “Take It Like a Man.”
While The Doors, The Byrds, and The Ike And Tina Turner Revue were among the most highly-anticipated acts of the festival, it was really Led Zeppelin who emerged as the highlight. England’s hottest new act were just on the cusp of fame in America when they played Seattle Pop.
“Sunday night was supposed to belong to The Doors but it was stolen right out from under them by the great English blues group, Led Zeppelin,” wrote Patrick MacDonald for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
“Coming onstage after the forced extravaganza of The Doors, the Zeppelin faced a jaded and uncomfortable audience that had been standing in the cold all evening. But the electricity of lead singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page quickly warmed them up.
“Plant has a voice that is controlled hysteria. Anguish pours from his every note; his voice is an epitome of the blues. Page is an amazing guitarist. His runs and fingering are magnificent, his control of the instrument pure genius.
Few who experienced it will forget Led Zeppelin’s performance, especially their smashing encore of ‘Communication Breakdown’.”
The “forced extravaganza” MacDonald writes of refers to one of Jim Morrison’s less-inspired performances, in which The Doors frontman spent the show heckling the crowd and shouting obscenities before ending the set’s finale, “The End,” in a Christ-like pose.
A watershed moment for the counterculture
Morrison’s antics aside, the rest of the performances were equally electrifying. The Flying Burrito Brothers played a blistering set, still riding high off their landmark debut album, The Gilded Palace Of Sin. Shortly after Seattle Pop Festival, however, the Burritos’ bassist Chris Ethridge left the band, turning their performance into an essential document of their original line-up.
Dressed in a daring fishnet dress, Tina Turner ripped up the stage with her signature moves, while Chicago’s producer Jimmy Guercio reportedly parachuted onto the field for the band’s performance, recalled Grafmyre.
1969 was not only a watershed moment in the countercultural movement, but a turning point for many artists who either continued their upward trajectory, such as Alice Cooper and Santana, or fell to the wayside – like Vanilla Fudge who disbanded nine months later.
While Seattle Pop Festival remains a footnote in rock history, it was an important milestone on the road to Woodstock, and one of the greatest rock festivals of all time to be held in the Pacific Northwest.
In just a few short months, at the dawn of the 70s, it would seem as though peace and love were all but a memory.
The end of the 60s saw a burst of creativity that cemented the decade’s importance in music history. Explore some of the greatest albums of the era, including classics from The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Allman Brothers Band, on our Summer Of ’69 store page.
Looking for more? Discover the full story behind Woodstock’s “three days of peace and music.”
robert Bishop
December 12, 2020 at 6:45 pm
I was there. The Doors were just plain bad. Santana played after the Doors & were magnificent.
Then Chuck Berry stole the show with an electric performance, Agreat rock guitarist.
Zepplin closed the Sunday night & many walked away as their wall of sound just could not compete with the sets by Santana & Berry.
I was also at the 1st Sky River Rock festival, in the mud. On the Sunday the James Cotton Blues Band stole the the show from The Greatful Dead who came on next to close the festival.
Davoid Otness
December 27, 2020 at 11:57 pm
I was at both of those festivals too. Got to work as “security” and spent a lot of time under the stage where some awesome jams were going on among the the different band members.
“What a trip” only begins to describe those days & nights.
Rosco Brennan
December 21, 2021 at 2:42 pm
What an experience for a 15 year old kid. Our gang piled into an old station wagon in West Seattle got there early and stayed late Sunday.
Sun, fun and drugs. Tina and the Iketts were it for me. Would love to do it again
Byron Rhoades
January 24, 2022 at 11:00 pm
I was a junior in high school at the time.
My buddy and I lied to our parents, saying we were each spending the weekend at the other’s house.
It blew up when his dad checked in with my parents while we were in Woodinville for the Festival.
I too remember Chuck Berry ruling the last evening.
The Doors were an embarrassment thanks to Morrison.
Loved Santana as well.
Ike and Tina earlier in the weekend killed it too.
David
May 20, 2023 at 4:04 pm
Prior to this event in Seattle was the Newport 69 3 day event at Devonshire Downs in Northridge Ca. Many of the same artists appeared and attendance was estimated at over 100,000. It was a memorable experience not only for the music but for the fact the LAPD continually circled overhead in their new helicopter, (I went to all three days and lived in the neighborhood!)
Stephen C Harvey
August 5, 2023 at 10:36 pm
Chris Hillman did not leave the Flying Burrito Brothers shortly after this gig. That was Gram Parsons and he only left after they did their second album. Hillman stayed on for a few more albums.
Cyrus W
August 7, 2023 at 2:04 am
I was there at 19yrs old the best weekend ever. I took Monday off because I new I would be wrecked. The best show I was ever at. Hands down.
Joe Coburn
December 12, 2023 at 1:23 am
Vanilla Fudge was on stage with their wall of Marshalls. I was told that the acid on which I spent my last $3 was made by a fellow named, Owsley. Could’a been. It was the best, and I had a substantial number against which to compare it.
I was holding onto a swing set without swings so that I might stop shaking from the cold, and could see clearly, and speak to the giant standing next to me.
“These guys are great!” I exclaimed.
The giant looked down at me, and with all the seriousness due, he spoke these words, “They may be good, but they’re not Cream.”
The weight of his message caused me to stagger, finally, I lost my balance and landed in the mud, “My god, he’s right!”
Based on that experience, I worked for the next two years with Pat MacDonald, who was the Program Director at KOL FM, Seattle’s first Underground Radio Station. In 1971, I was hired by Pat O’Day as the first full-time employee at KISW FM. The following Memorial Day, I produced and staffed nearly the whole Radio Rock Festival, playing nothing but entire live albums for 72 hours straight. After that I was the General Ticket Sales Manager (what you call your Front House Manager) at the Paramount Theaters in Seattle and Portland, then the Production Manager at KZOK FM. After 10 years in Rock n Roll, I went legit, as they say.
So, if a person was to say that Seattle Pop was a pivotal moment in the history of Rock n Roll in Seattle, and a likewise pivotal moment in my humble existence, I suppose that’s the truth of it.
Thanks for listening.
Melissa Gacke
March 4, 2024 at 10:25 pm
I was there, the first night I think! My best memory: the group “It’s a Beautiful Day” played around sunset. The singer Patti Santos took the microphone and spoke to us saying: “I can’t see you, but I can feel you smiling.”