Atlanta Pop Festival, Day One
Hampton
On July 4, 1969, the first Atlanta International Pop Festival opened at the Atlanta International Raceway in Hampton, Georgia -- the first major rock festival in the Deep South, roughly six weeks before Woodstock, drawing toward a hundred thousand people into hundred-degree heat. The Friday bill ran to Creedence Clearwater Revival, Canned Heat, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Johnny Rivers, Grand Funk Railroad, Delaney & Bonnie, and the Dave Brubeck Trio with Gerry Mulligan -- a genuinely catholic mix of rock, blues, and jazz. (The festival's most famous names, Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin, played the second day, July 5.) Promoter Alex Cooley's success here would ripple outward all weekend -- including a free thank-you concert in Piedmont Park three days later.
Verification Notes
Antagonist-checked. VERIFIED: Atlanta Pop opened Fri 7/4/69, Hampton GA; Day-1 bill (CCR, Canned Heat, Butterfield, Johnny Rivers, Grand Funk, Delaney & Bonnie, Brubeck/Mulligan); ~100k over two days, ~100F; first major Deep South festival; ~6 wks pre-Woodstock. CRITICAL: Zeppelin/Joplin/Cocker = 7/5 NOT 7/4 -- kept off. SOFT: CTA + Johnny Winter's exact day (lean 7/5) -- not asserted for Day 1. date high.
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