FH Reader Robert Campbell … who last month sent us that
detailed recap of The Kickapoo Creek Rock Festival … is back with another page
of Rock And Roll History for us …
This time, it’s The People's Fair, held in Stevens
Point, Wisconsin, fifty years ago this week.
50 years ago this week in 1970 …
It’s been just under 30 days since the Kickapoo Creek Rock Festival
wrapped up and it’s already time to head up to Wisconsin for the 4th
Midwest / regional rock festival during the 1970 summer of rock festivals …
The People's Fair aka The
Stevens Point Rock Festival /
The Reverse Altamont
of the Midwest
Now the interesting thing is that no one really knew the proper name of
this festival. From its inception, it was always referred to as the Stevens
Point Rock Festival, even though it was not in Stevens Point. Stevens Point was
the largest city 30 miles away, but it was actually near Iola, WI. It was located
northeast of the intersection of Highway MM & County Road T. And here is
the best part. The site straddled the border of Portage County and Waupaca
County, both of which abstained from claiming any jurisdiction over the site
during the course of the festival. It wasn’t until approximately 10 years ago
when I stumbled upon the above poster that discovered the real name of the
festival and where it actually was. And yes, I was there.
The festival was held on the 26th, 27th and 28th
of June, 1970. The listed spokesmen / promoters of this festival were Fritz Von
Buckholtz and James Sitton of Madison, WI.
Official Map to Site
I attended this festival with my friend Rob, who also went to Kickapoo
with me. This time, for whatever reason, we are not bringing any girls with us.
It’s a boys’ weekend out.
Having learned the benefits of arriving at a festival early, we loaded all
of our camping gear into the 1967 MG 1100 Sedan on Thursday afternoon and
headed due north on 90, currently 39, up into Wisconsin. Our route was 90
north, east on 10 by Stevens Point to 161, east on 161to CTH-A north, North on
CTH-A to CTH-MM east to site.
1967
MG 1100 Sedan
Somewhere north of Madison and prior to the turn off on
10, the usually dependable MG 1100 Sedan just stopped. The engine went
completely dead and we coasted over to the shoulder. We did what everyone elese
did at the time … we popped the hood and looked at the engine compartment with
absoulutely no idea what to do. Our chances of repairing an American car on the
road were zero and our chances of repairing an English car were way less than
that. We looked and looked with absolutely no idea what we were looking at. We
then got determined … we were going to get to this rock festival one way or the
other.
I sent Rob about 100 yards back south down the freeway.
We had many car loads of friends driving up to the festival that day and his
job was to wave at me when one of them passed. I would the flag the friend
over. The first car we knew came by about fifteen minutes later. It was our
friend Randy in his 67 Pontiac Lemans with a black vinyl top ... a nice car in
those days with plenty of room for us and our gear.
We were just getting ready to transfer our gear and I had
to go and take one more look under the hood. I was looking down and I noticed
that their was only one wire clipped onto what I believe was the alternator.
The other wire had come loose and dropped down. I grabbed it and put the wire
back where it was supposed to be, got in and turned the key and the 1100 fired
right up. Other than a flat tire, I believe that this was the only road side
repair I successfully made in my life. A minor miracle.
It was almost dark when we got to the festival grounds. I
have no idea how we got there, as it was out
in the middle of nowhere. We pulled in and there was a large field for
parking with plenty of room at the time. I think we were in the third row.
Unlike Kickapoo, you could not park at your campsite at this festival. There
was the typical dirt road that led up to what turned out to be the center of
the grounds. You walked down this dirt road, around and past a barn and then up
a hill to the camping area. It was about two blocks from the car to the camping
site. As it was gettng dark, we could really not see anything at this time. We
packed the tent and some basic gear and headed up to this site. We then set up
the tent, but that’s all we basically had on that trip. It then started to rain
lightly. Rather than get soaked, we got
in the tent, but it was really too cold and uncomfrotable to sleep on the floor
of the tent. The rain let up a little and we decided to make another trip for
our sleeping bags and back packs. When we got back to the car, it started to
rain harder. Rather than getting ourselves and our gear soaked by packing
everything up and walking the two blocks back to the tent, we decided to sleep
in the car. We got in the back seat, pushed the backs of the front seats down
and it really wasn’t too bad … plenty of room.
Friday:
6/26/70 (Weather: sunny and nice)
Bam, Bam, Bam, at first light in the morning were rudely
awoken by pounding on the hood of the car. Some really pissed off guy had, what
turned out to be one of his friends, by the head and was pounding it into the
hood of the car. They appeared to be just out of high school and must have been
drinking all night in the rain and apparently tempers flared. We did not
realize that this would set the tone for events later in the festival.
Apparently, this drunken anger subsided and they just walked away. The rain had
finished for the weekend so we got up and made the several trips necessary to
get all of our gear to the campsite. We also got a better lay of the festival
site.
We walked from the parking lot to the barn, which was in
a low area in the center of the property. A handful of people had taken refuge
in the barn. There was a lot of hay
bales in there and a large tanker trailer full of water. We had set up our
campsite in a perfect location. The large open area was kind of like a bowel.
The stage was on a flat area on the east side and our campsite was on the west
side of the bowel with a dirt road and a woods behind it. We actually could see
the stage and hear the music from our site. The north side of the bowel was
where the vendors and porto-lets were. We then made several trips to the barn
for bales of hay and water.
We also spent most of the morning scouting out the
entire 200 acre site. The woods west of the campsite had several small ponds in
it which would adaquetly provide the bathing facilities for the duration of the
festival.
During the day, a lot of our friends showed up and joined our
campsite. I also noted that a handful of bikers were arriving and hanging out
at the barn. We really didn’t think much about this at the time.
We have absolutely no verification of who actually showed
up or at what time they played.
The scheduled entertainment for Friday was as follows …
Friday, June 26, 1970,
Noon – 3 am: (Names in bold have been posted as being seen there)
Django, Sound Street, Buddy Rich,
Bowery Boys, Taj Mahal, Seigal-Schwal, SRC, Hope, Melanie, Manitoba Hugger, Paul Butterfield, Lockinger, Strophe,
Pye, Omaha
As it turns out, the music did not start until around 6:00 pm as there
were problems with the sound system. The only thing I remember about Friday
night was that the music was forgettable ... because I have forgotten most of
it. The only one I remember actually playing was Melanie, because she bored the
hell out of us. One of my friends from Kickapoo reported that he sat right in
front of the stage and could look right up her dress and “that was cool.” I guess you had to have good seats.
She came on about 8:00 pm. By then, the crowd was ready to rock and this
just sent the evening headed in the wrong direction. The music must have gone
on all night because there wasn’t much sleep.
Saturday: 6/27/70
(Weather: Sunny and warm)
For whatever reason, I did not bring my camera with me on this trip. In
addition, there are very few good photos available on the internet. A number of
years ago, I stumbled on a site that was established by a professional
photographer by the name of Sanderson. Apparently, he had just graduated from
photography school and his first project was The People’s Fair. He has them
posted on his Facebook page. I do not do Facebook, but you can view them
without getting involved in Facebook. These are some of the best photos of a
rock festival that I have seen. Not too many band shots, but really good. If
you want to view the photos, go this site: Iola
Rock Festival June of 1970 | Facebook
By Saturday, the grounds had really filled up … 40,000 to 60,000 was the
typical accurate estimate. We had breakfast and I remember going to the car and
getting something. On the way back as I walked by the barn, I noticed that the
bikers had completely taken over the barn area and had kicked any hippies out that
were staying there. We had no idea who they were, but there was a lot of them.
Later from articles or posts, it was rumored that they were from Rockford,
which would have been the Hell’s Henchmen or The Outlaws from Chicago. Also,
unknown to us at the time, the bikers had set up a roadblock at the entrance to
the parking field and were charging $10.00 per car to park. We also noticed
that several of them had large caliber handguns tucked into their belts. At
this time, we decided to stay clear of the barn and take the long way back to
the car if we had to go there again. We also went to the pond to take a bath.
There was a handful of people there along with about four of the bikers. We
went into the pond along with most of the folks there and got cleaned up.
Everyone came out about the same time and just about everyone had bloodsuckers
on them. I know I had two on me. As no one had any lemons or salt, we had to
yank them off. The bikers solidified their standing in the community by yanking
theirs off and eating them. After that, we brought containers to the pond and
did not go into it again. Our buddy Randy, with the 67 Lemans, and another
friend, Larry, were camped next to us. Larry’s folks owned the largest dairy in
town and he had this insulated container about as big as a mini frig. It had a
compartment in the bottom that you could put a block of dry ice in and then put
food and stuff in the top. It would stay cold all weekend. It normally was used
to sell ice cream products at outdoor events. They typically would sleep until
after noon and them get up and start pulling out eggs, bacon and then steaks
for dinner. This would irritate the hell out of the rest of us. (More on that later)
The posted line up for today’s music was …
Saturday, June 27,
1970, 11 am – 3 am: (Names in bold have been posted as being seen there)
Bare Fat, Brownsville Station,
Oz, Soup, Spirit, Bowery Boys, Crow,
Amboy Dukes, U.S. Pure, Buffy St.
Marie, Tayles, Mason Profit, Moses
Once again, with the exception of a few bands, I have no idea who showed
up and when they played. The Amboy Dukes were actually Ted Nugent and he did
not play until Sunday night. There is very little info on the internet about
this festival compared to Kickapoo. Just like the NC6 being at Kickapoo, I just
read a blog today that somebody thought The Ides of March played at this
festival and I have never heard that before. But, in my opinion, the musical
highlights of this festival were on Saturday afternoon.
Every now and then a band really comes out of nowhere and puts on a peak
performance at a festival. The size of the venue and the large sound system
seems to fit them perfectly. At this festival there were two bands that
achieved this: Brownsville Station and
Crow.
Nobody was familiar with Brownsville Station and they were just flat out
fun and hilarious. Their stage set up was similar to Led Zeppelin, The Who or
Jimi Hendrix ... huge stacks of Marshall Amps. Their opening chord would have
been appropriate for those bands as well, but that’s where it stopped. Most of
their songs were hard rock, and I mean hard rock covers of late 50s early 60s
songs. They also had a few originals. Their set list at the time was off of
their current album, “No BS”, and included Be-Bop Confidential, Rockin’ Robin,
Road Runner, Hello Mary Lou, My Boy-Flat Top, and Rumble. Originals in the set
were Guitar Train, Blue Eyed Girl, City Life, Do The Bosco and Cadillac
Express. Members of the band were Michael Lutz, Cubby Koda, Tony Driggins and
T.J Cronley. There is a very crude video of this festival and I think the only
musician you can identify is Tony Driggins in this goofy pointed hat he would
wear on stage. Later in life, Cub Koda went on to record several blues albums
that I have and are worth a listen. T.J. Conely went on to become a fighter and
commercial pilot. Brownsville Station was just the boost this festival needed
after a lackluster Friday Night.
Crow, from Minneapolis, played shortly thereafter and was another band
that most were unaware of. They had one hit with “Evil Woman,” but had no
previous exposure with most of the crowd. Their set typically starts off with a
hard version of “Slow Down” and then proceeds through the contents of their
second album, “Crow By Crow”. Once again, the mood of the music was perfect for
a festival crowd. My wife recently bought me a mini turn table to play my old
albums on. I organized them, alphabetized them and the first album I played was
“Crow by Crow.” I also vaguely remember
seeing Mason Profit and we spent most of Saturday night waiting to see Fuse,
who had been added to the lineup. We ended up waiting all night because they
did not play until 9:30 on Sunday morning.
During the course of Saturday afternoon, we heard a few rumors that the
bikers were really hassling some of the crowd. The rumors consisted of
robberies, fights and rapes. I actually never witnessed any of this at the
festival. Saturday night was mostly a large party at our campsite which was now
full of friends and people that dropped by. The weather was so nice that we
just pulled our bags out and dozed off and on under the stars. Sometime in the
middle of the night, a girl came along and crawled into my sleeping bag with
me. She struck me as being totally overwhelmed by the festival, had no place to
go and took a chance on hopefully finding a safe space. I just let it go at
that.
Sunday: 6/28/70
(Weather: Sunny and warm)
There was no line of demarcation between Saturday and Sunday. One day just
bled into another.
Sunday, June 28, 1970,
Noon - 11 pm: (Names in bold have been posted as being seen there)
Short Stuff, Tongue, Ravi Shankar,
Chuck Berry, Django, Bloomsbury People, Terry Reid, Morgan, Bowery Boys,
(Two more names you can't
read). Also
Known to Appear: Fuse, Lightning
Rumored to have
appeared, The Ides of March The Stooges,
Mountain
We were still waiting to see Fuse, who finally played at 9:30 on Sunday
morning. Somehow, they were able to muster a superb set to the totally burned
out crowd. Being from Rockford, we saw Fuse all the time and it was fun to
watch the reaction to the crowd, most of whom had not seen them before.
The Reverse Altamont
of the Midwest:
We had actually gone up to the front of the stage for the Fuse set. Near
the end of their set, there was a huge commotion on the dirt road back behind
our campsite. It looked like several thousand people were charging down the
hill towards the barn where the bikers were. Rocks and bottles were flying.
Supposedly the harassment from the bikers had been escalating all night and the
people near the barn had just had it. My guess is there were a lot of feisty
college students from Madison. As the story goes, the hippies started to throw
rocks and bottles at the bikers. The bikers then started up some of their bikes
and charged up the hill. A couple of bikes had girls on the handlebars firing
guns. Several different sources indicate that one of the hippies charging down
the hill got shot in the stomach. Vastly outnumbered the bikers turned and made
a run for it. Some were caught and their bikes were burned. One biker couldn’t
kick start his bike and abandoned it and jumped on the back of another bike.
His bike was burned. One hippie came out of the woods with a 22 rifle and
approached an armed biker. For what seemed like a long time they were pointing
their guns at the other guy’s head. Finally, the biker lowered his gun and took
off. They were running for their lives. The Steven’s Point Journal reported
that 23 members of a Chicago area cycle gang were taken into custody. Three other persons were arrested on
disorderly conduct and theft. Of the 26 arrested, 19 were men and 7 were women.
Three persons were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds following the
violence, which broke out after confrontations over a number of rapes and
strong arm robberies by the cycle gang. None of the shooting victims were
seriously hurt. Shot were Kevin Henry, 19, Downers Grove, Frank Rees, 21,
Chicago and Michael McLauerin, 26, Madison.
After the ruckus died down, the festival basically fizzled. We went back
to our campsite and Randy and Larry were still in bed. We opened up Larry’s dry
ice frig and took out all of their steak and eggs and cooked them up and ate
them. We figured that’s what they got for sleeping in. It took us most of the
day and many trips to pack our gear back to the car. My guess is that we left
sometime in the middle of the afternoon. I am sure we listened to the music,
but never went back up to the stage again.
In reviewing the schedule, I am very upset about missing Terry Reid. I had
one of his albums at the time and really liked some of his music. I have no
idea whether he played or not.
I have also read a report that Mountain showed up and played prior to Ted
Nugent. In this report there was a guitar battle between Ted and Leslie West
and Ted won hands down.
As reported in a blog, the festival ended when one of the stagehands
accidently poured a glass of water on Ted Nugent’s guitar amps power box,
ending the three day festival.
We were not alone on our way home. Somehow, we ended up with two girls on
our way home that claimed they lived in Loves Park, which is right next to
Rockford. They had come to our campsite at some point in time and had never
left. We had no idea who they were, how old they were and quite frankly were
afraid to ask. As we had no desire for any interaction with anybody’s parents
at the time, we left them on a corner of Business 51 in Loves Park and went
home.
Notes:
a)
There is a very crude DVD comprised of surveillance film
footage. I received it from Tony Menzer, the bass player for The Mel Ford /
Westside Andy Band out of Madison. Apparently, they had checked the film out
from the local historical society and made a crude DVD of the festival. But
that’s all there is available.
b)
Apparently, it was a huge endeavor to get the site cleaned
up. One of the counties apparently imposed a $5,000.00 per day fine on Fritz
Von Buchholtz for every day it was not cleaned up. By 8/10/70 the fine was up
to ($200,000.00). That’s 1970 dollars.
-- Robert Campbell
In an effort to
set the record straight, I asked the members of The Ides Of March if they did,
in fact, appear (uncredited) at The Peoples Fair in 1970, much the same way The
New Colony Six appeared at The Kickapoo Creek Rock Festival a month
earlier.
Jim Peterik tells us that it’s absolutely true …
We
were there and we played our young asses off.
I
think we were a last minute add on ... but we killed.
Good
days indeed!
Rock on!!
Jimbo
So there you have it … filling in a
few more details in rock and roll history!
