Seattle Pop Festival held in
Woodinville on July 25, 1969.
HistoryLink.org Essay 1259


On July 25, 1969, Boyd Grafmyre stages the Seattle Pop Festival, held at Gold Creek Park in Woodinville, northeast of Seattle. Over the next three days, 25 musicians and groups perform, including Chuck Berry, Black Snake, Tim Buckley, The Byrds, Chicago Transit Authority, Albert Collins, Crome Syrcus, Bo Diddley, the Doors, Floating Bridge, The Flock, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Guess Who, It's A Beautiful Day, Led Zeppelin, Charles Loyd, Lonnie Mack, Lee Michaels, Rockin Fu, Murray Roman, Santana, Spirit, Ten Years After, Ike & Tina Turner, Vanilla Fudge, and the Youngbloods.
Tickets for the event went for $6 a day or $15 for all three. More than 50,000 rock fans attended over the three days. Since crowds were larger than expected, extra water and food had to be hauled in on Sunday. Sanitary facilities were inadequate, but every attempt was made to meet county requirements.

Nearby neighbors complained of traffic and the hippie atmosphere, but Chick Dawsey, owner of Gold Creek, noted that spectators were orderly with very few exceptions.

"I disagree with their movement 100 per cent," said Dawsey, "but some of us adults better get the hell closer to them. They respond very much to kindness, we older people better learn this -- If they need a drink of water we, the establishment, should go out and offer it."

Dazed and Confused

1969. It was a time of trouble, and it was a time of greatness!
Now it is time, some 37 years later, for the people of America to once again, Represent Them Selves!



Thanks to L.E.N. for the thread inspiration

Glad you found this Sky! Yea...I was there. My last duty station was a reserve training ship out of Monterey, and every place we went that Summer had either a rock festival or GREAT concerts going on. I think Seattle Pop was one of the very best. To this day, I can close my eyes and remember Robert Plant's voice echoing up and down off the mountains around Woodinville (not far from Seattle). I think the festival was right about where the Ste. Michelle winery is now.

In Vancouver BC, there were war protesters who jumped from the dock to the ship to try to talk guys into going AWOL....

The festivals, the music, that war (probably some really meaningful planetary alignments too!), seemed to make us like a mind of one. We felt the power of the coming of the aquarian age. ALAS, it was not to be...reds, heroin, meth came to the party a few years after these pristine experiences...maybe it just takes a LONG TIME for one age to end, and another to wind up to speed, eh?

I was near LA at the time. Every weekend was a "love in" or a peace demonstration in Griffith Park or somewhere. Seemed to me the Manson murders were the beginning of the end.