Check Out This Lineup! Newport Pop Festival, August 3 – 4, 1968

Saturday August 3^rd

• Alice Cooper
• Canned Heat
• Chambers Brothers
• Charles Lloyd Quartet
• Country Joe and the Fish
• Electric Flag
• James Cotton Blues Band
• Paul Butterfield Blues Band
• Sonny & Cher
• Steppenwolf
• Tiny Tim

Sunday August 4th

Jerry Garcia with Ken Kesey

• Blue Cheer
• Eric Burdon & the Animals
• Grateful Dead
• Illinois Speed Press
• Iron Butterfly
• Jefferson Airplane
• Quicksilver Messenger Service
• The Byrds
• Things to Come

Not listed on the official poster but also played somewhere on the grounds:

• Lovin’ Spoonful
• Rhinoceros
• Sky Pilot
• The Turtles

The first Newport Pop Festival was held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, on the weekend of August 3–4, 1968. It is believed to have been the first pop music concert attended by more than 100,000 paying concertgoers. Rolling Stone Mag estimated there were closer to 140,000. Admission to the festival was $5.50 per day. Concert goers recall helicopters dropping flowers on the audience.

Here’s some cool footage of The Grateful Dead & Jefferson Airplane on Stage at The Newport Pop festival August 4’th 1968. All Photos are from the show. There is not much out there from 1968. But this footage is from HistoricalFilms.com. I do not own it but they give you a free low res download and this is it 🙂

Clip is not from the ’68 show but they did play it at the festival … plus, I just like it. Quicksilver Messenger: Fresh Air