The Monterey Pop Festival, held June 16-18, 1967, is rightfully hailed as a watershed moment in rock history. The event made countercultural heroes out of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who, brought Otis Redding to a large white audience for the first time, expanded rock fans’ listening habits with sets by Ravi Shankar and South African jazz great Hugh Masekela, and also featured such major acts of the day as Simon and Garfunkel, the Mamas and the Papas, Eric Burdon and the Animals, the Byrds and Jefferson Airplane.
This June 16-18, on the exact dates marking the 50th anniversary of the original, a San Francisco-based promoter, Gregg Perloff, chief executive of Another Planet Entertainment, along with Goldenvoice, the company behind Coachella and last fall’s Desert Trip concerts, are revisiting the idea. Billed again as the Monterey International Pop Festival, the new event will star contemporary artists such as Norah Jones, Jack Johnson, Gary Clark Jr., Leon Bridges, Kurt Vile, the Head and the Heart, Father John Misty and more.
Three artists will be repeat visitors from the original festival, which was immortalized in the D.A. Pennebaker documentary Monterey Pop: former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who will perform with his Terrapin Family Band; Eric Burdon & the Animals; and Booker T. Stax Revue (of the MG’s fame).
Tickets are available here.
Related: The Monterey Pop Festival begins, June 1967
The original event was, by any measure, a singular moment that could never be repeated—the first major rock festival and large-scale meeting of what Redding called the “love crowd.”
The festival will take place at the same site as the ’67 event, the Monterey County Fairgrounds, in Monterey, Calif. The site is still in use annually for the Monterey Jazz Festival.
A New York Times article notes the original Monterey Pop film will have a special theatrical run in June.
Watch Janis Joplin sing “Ball and Chain” at the original ’67 festival, with Big Brother and the Holding Company, from the film Monterey Pop
Watch a taste of what festival-goers might hear at the 50th anniversary event, Gary Clark Jr. performing Albert King’s “Born Under a Bad Sign,” here with guest John Mayer
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