The Third Eye

Music was an ever-changing art form in the 1960s. Bands across the globe were taking the lessons of genre makers like Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, pushing them in a new and more exciting direction while still paying homage to their forefathers. The psychedelic movement was in full swing in 1969, and the kick-off of that season was at The Denver Pop Festival, an overlooked weekend obscured by the highly influential Woodstock show a couple of months later.  

About The Denver Pop Festival

The Denver Pop Festival was a one-time rock concert over three days in 1969, organized by promoter Barry Fey. The exact dates were from June 27th thru the 29th, and the festival featured the final performance of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Other featured acts included Creedence Clearwater Revival, Three Dog Night, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention (one of their first shows), Iron Butterfly, Johnny Winter, Joe Cocker, and several lesser-known acts. 

Around 50,000 attendees was the peak number recorded for the weekend of shows at Mile High Stadium, with tickets only costing $6 per day and $15 for the entire weekend. Don’t we all wish tickets were this cheap in 2023?!? Incredibly enough, the last day was free entry due to poor crowd control and violence at the gate, so the number of concertgoers may have been much higher than the original. 

Unlike Woodstock, The Denver Pop Festival had the backing, support, and local resources of the city of Denver, so expectations for its success were lofty. So why didn’t it become a yearly event? The answer to that is fairly simple: violence, poor crowd control, and overzealous actions by the local police departments.

The festival was claimed to be a disaster, with the “city fathers” saying that it would be the first and last attempt they would make at having a show of this size, as controlling it was challenging. It could also be said that it was a sign of the times, as the normies felt that the hippie generation was the death of the American way, which it obviously wasn’t. 

On a more positive note, this was also the show where Frank Zappa was credited by many as creating the “crowd wave,” according to Wikipedia … 

“He assigned sections of the stadium (audience) to each make different odd sounds and gestures, including standing with arms raised. He then “played” a “tune” on his “crowd instrument.”

As stated above, this was also the last appearance of The Jimi Hendrix Experience (the highest-paid group at that time), as Noel Redding left the band on the festival’s final day. His departure was due to his displeasure with Jimi, who had announced plans to expand the group without communicating with the current members; Noel’s response to this news was to jump ship and head back to England.

Final Thoughts 

Sadly this festival was marred by violence and poor efforts at crowd control by a police force that didn’t understand how to react to the younger generation. Thankfully concert promoters have learned some valuable lessons since then, and most of our current festivals go over much smoother in comparison. However, there are occasionally still instances of violence and other issues that negatively affect the overall experience for those in attendance.

This article was written by Tom Hanno, who has been writing reviews for the last 7 years but has been sharing his love of music for the majority of his life. Originally starting out at the now-defunct Chimera Magazine, he is currently contributing to Doomed and Stoned, The Sleeping Shaman, The Doom Charts, Tom’s Reviews, and The Third Eye. Read more of Tom’s reviews by checking out his Linktree.

Parting words: “A hero is a goddam stupid thing to have in the first place and a general block to anything you might want to accomplish on your own.” – Lester Bangs

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