Schaefer Music Festival at Harvard Stadium, 1970
It was a year after Woodstock and the spirit of the ‘60s continued to race through America like a locomotive. Music festivals sprung up everywhere and Boston was no exception. As a 19-year old, I found myself as one of four people running the Schaefer Music Festival at Harvard Stadium during the summer of 1970, under the supervision of consummate New York City promoter Ron Delsener.
Harvard Stadium is an amazing structure, built like a behemoth horseshoe made of brick and stone. The massive stage was built 12 feet off the ground on the playing field and the venue’s sound system and light show had no equals in the area at the time. The stage was in the “U” shaped part of the stadium, comprising 14,000 seats of the 30,000-plus-capacity structure, and tickets for every show cost a mere $2 (a one-day pass at Woodstock was $6.50). If Woodstock was any indication, the stage was set for a very successful summer of rock, folk, R&B, blues, jazz and a little pop – something for everyone. But would people actually come to the 16 shows that were part of the festival? There was a buzz throughout Cambridge and the surrounding area in anticipation.
The first show was on June 22, opened by Bob Dylan’s backing group The Band, who’d exploded onto the scene in 1968 with their debut album Music from Big Pink and their platinum-selling follow-up LP in ‘69. Advance ticket sales appeared to be going well, The Band did a flawless sound check after arriving in the early afternoon (decked out in the typical colorful attire of the era), but we still had no idea how the public would respond to the event. Showtime was 8:00 pm and by 6:00 pm we had our answer: pandemonium!
Thousands of people of all ages (mostly our generation’s beloved hippies) paid the $2 to see the show, which sold out in minutes, but hundreds of others surrounded the stadium wanting to get in. Craving to see their favorite groups but not wanting to pay “the man” for what they felt should be free, the masses stormed the high, wrought-iron gates and climbed over, bypassing the venue’s security and local cops.
This turned out to be the story for every performance at the festival that summer. Each show was sold out but hundreds (sometimes thousands) who hadn’t paid to get in scaled fences and crammed in to see their favorite artists, among them B.B. King, Ray Charles, Ten Years After, The Four Seasons, The Grateful Dead, Tina Turner, John Sebastian, Van Morrison, Johnny Mathis, The Supremes, Tom Rush and Janis Joplin (who died just six weeks after appearing at the festival).
It was like the Summer of Love all over again (but without the rain), with throngs of people enjoying the cool air, grooving to the music and getting high. And it was a summer I prayed would never end. The artistry, the artists, the insane backstage area, the groupies, the drugs, the party atmosphere and the adoring crowds – always on their best behavior, except for an occasional overdose – combined to make a profound impression on a 19-year old who was trying to figure out his own path. It was a uniquely creative era coupled with a powerfully tumultuous moment in history that, as confusing as it was, I wish every human being could have experienced. Maybe each generation has a similar type of experience, but I can’t imagine that that’s true.
The ‘60s and early ‘70s were something else altogether, so I want to give a big shout out to my generation and say “thanks” to a place I will always call my home: Boston.
(by Glenn Holland)
