“There will be no festival. I can assure you of that,”
-State Sen. John Pickett of Middletown
Crowds at Powder Ridge Rock Festival July 31, 1970
Party At Powder Ridge
The Festival that was never to be quickly turned into the the party to be free!
Powder Ridge Music Festival event poster 1970
Billed as the Powder Ridge Rock Festival, $20 bucks would get you into a Woodstock esque festival on the slopes of a Connecticut ski resort featuring bands such as Fleetwood Mac, Joe Cocker, Richie Havens, Jethro Tull, Van Morrison and even Janis Joplin.
Just days before the festival was scheduled to begin, the town of Middlefield filled an injunction with the courts worried about the impact of such a large event on a small city such as theirs, the injunction officially canceled the Festival.
Told to ‘Stay Away’, the crowds didn’t get the message.
Signs posted on the highway to Middlefield, Connecticut. 1970
State Police decided to head off the concert crowds by posting signs on every highway leading to Middlefield which read “P. Ridge Fest. Prohibited Court Injunction”.
The signs did little to stop the swarms of caravans carrying eager youth looking for a good time.
An estimated 30,000 people showed up on the slopes of Powder Ridge to camp and party despite the festivals cancellation and many signs to stay away.
The crowds arrived on the hill to no food available to them, no bathrooms in place or even a single organized form of entertainment to appease the growing mass of campers. Local food vendors from ice cream trucks to hot dog carts stepped in to fill the void of the paying campers while many ‘community’ funded eateries popped up to feed the hungry masses.
Grubbing at the ‘community’ eatery serving spam sandwich’s, Powder Ridge Festival 1970
A handful of local bands stepped in to entertain the restless crowds but only one performer who was originally booked defied the court order to make an appearance at the camp.
While she was informed of the cancellation and asked to attend the National Press conference in town, Folk singer Melanie decided to hitch a ride to see what was really happening up the mountain.
“…everybody warned me not to go, it would be dangerous. Any performer who ventured to this site would be arrested. There was a press conference held at the ski lodge with the organizers, officials and several performers.
At the press conference I didn’t say very much. It seemed so ridiculous…
All these people were there to hear music and have the time of their lives!
I too wanted to have the time of my life ~
I slipped out of the room at the press conference and hitched a ride, pretended I was a 1010 WINS newscaster squished between the other press and threw my guitar in the trunk !”
– Folk Singer Melanie
Tapping into the speaker system of a Ice Cream truck, Melanie played an impromptu set for the grateful crowd gathered around the sweet vehicle.
Melanie & The Edwin Hawkins Singers ‘Lay Down’ LIVE in ’70
Melanie performing for the crowds at the Powder Ridge ‘Rock Festival’ 1970
But it was the festivals open drug markets and drug fueled party that made the lasting impression of the weekend that never happened in 1970.
Hitting the waterpipe at Powder Ridge Festival 1970
Overrun and outnumbered, law enforcement pulled their men from the venue grounds concentrating their efforts on locking down and protecting the nearby town of Middlefield.
As thousands of campers arrived on the hill, the main stage’s sound system clicked on with a buzz, a voice announced… “Power to the people. The pigs have run away in their Cadillac’s. This is a people’s festival now.”
Guys selling lsd, 2 way acid and mescalin at Powder Ridge Festival 1970
In the absence of law enforcement “At least 70” dealers set up shop allowing for a free market. The venue grounds became a literal swap meet for drugs with hash, marijuana, lsd and even mescalin openly sold and consumed by the masses. Many of the pop up entrepreneurs decided to even use sign’s openly advertising their wares hoping to sway the curious crowds business.
One stop shop, Powder Ridge Festival 1970
‘Emerald City’ camp selling “Real South Mexican Gold” for $10 at the Powder Ridge Festival 1970
Guy selling ‘Mexico Grass’ at the Powder Ridge Festival 1970
In the open drug markets, hits of acid could be found at roadside convenience openly advertised for as little as a $1!
Selling LSD at Powder Ridge Festival 1970
But it was the “Electric Water” containers around camps that really sent people down the rabbit hole.
Free for anyone to consume, it was encouraged for people to make a ‘donation’ of whatever drugs they were holding into the brew making an unknown cocktail of drugs at an unknown dose.
According to volunteer doctors helping at the festival, this ‘electric water’ accounted for the majority of bad trips reported during the festival weekend.
Selling lsd at the Powder Ridge Festival 1970
Gathered crowds were forced to feed each other, clean up trash and police themselves with no major outside intervention which all happened with no major incidents reported…
Voyeur cops, ‘looking the other way’ during the Powder Ridge Festival 1970
Faced with the overwhelming number of festival fans flooding the small town slopes, the local forces were forced to watch and laugh it off with the intoxicated crowd.
Police talking with festival crowds on the main road, Powder Ridge Festival 1970
In his book Plenty of Sex and Drugs, But No Rock ´n´ Roll, author William Manchester tells of a story from the Powder Ridge Festival that weekend in 1970…
“One of the more sensational scenes, attested to by several witnesses, occurred in a small wood near some homes. A boy and a girl, both naked and approaching from different directions, met under the trees. On impulse they suddenly embraced. She dropped to her knees, he mounted her from behind, and after he had achieved his climax they parted—apparently without exchanging a word.”
The story would serve as the perfect metaphor for the canceled weekend…
Beautifully fucked while fading into oblivion.
Slopes at Powder Ridge, Connecticut