When I was a youngster, I didn't have a great compass of who to invite to my 12th birthday party. I had some great friends who were in attendance but being the people pleaser I am, some random kids who I didn't know overheard the invites going out on the playground earlier that week, so they came too. The random kids ended up bringing their Dad's pack of smokes. My mother wasn't too pleased by this, so unpleased in fact that I never got to have another birthday party. The randoms ruined it! In the summer of 1974 in Sedalia, MO the Ozark Music Festival saw the attendance of over 350,000 random kids with their dads' smokes and Sedalia was my angry mother. For this month's Ozarks Music History we are going to look at some of the moments that will act as an exercise as to what not to do when booking a summer music festival.
Don't book a festival in a city without proper infrastructure.
In the year 1974, Sedalia, Missouri's population was roughly 23,000. A town of this size is not equipped to handle a total of 350,000 concertgoers over a three day period. The shows were only estimated to have about 50,000 people. The roads into town were congested with cars, Interstate 70 was backed up for miles and miles. The local newspaper at the time labeled the event as a disaster due to the overflux of rowdy patrons that caused at least $100,000 in damages to the town. Within a few hours store owners were boarding up their building windows. Law enforcement reported people stealing food from stores and there was nothing that could be done but attempt to keep it contained because they were so outnumbered by the people at the festival that if a riot were to ensue, nothing could be done. Stores running out of food is one thing, but McDonalds was said to have run out of food as well. Never once would I think a McDonalds could run out of food. Eventually the National Guard was called in to prevent drug overdoses and maintain peace among the crowds.
Don't advertise the music festival as family friendly/bluegrass when Bachman-Turner Overdrive is headlining.
In a turn of deceptive meetings, the festival promoter Chris Fritz of Kansas City's Fairyland gathered investors with the idea that the festival would be a family friendly bluegrass festival (which was the most popular music genre in the area at the time). There were a few bluegrass acts on the bill (maybe only 15%) and the rest were various rock bands. The legendary line up featured Bachman-Turner Overdrive headlining with Blue Oyster Cult, The Eagles, America, Marshall Tucker Band, and many more pictured below.
Don't do drugs!
An obvious piece of advice my mother would approve of, 1974 was a time when a lot of folks were doing drugs. If there was a place to do it in their eyes, the Ozark Music Festival was it. As stated earlier the drug use and amount of overdosing was so bad that the National Guard was called in to wake up anyone who might seem knocked out from a drug overdose. Reports show that over 800 people were treated for overdoses with only one death reported. A lot of the music culture and drug culture of the time, were a one-circle-venn-diagram. For the local Sedalians this was a huge culture shock.
Drink lots of water.
Temperatures reached 100 degrees within a couple hours of the first day. The nearly 57,000 strong crowd of people, there was not enough water to go around in small town Sedalia. People have said they traded drugs for food and water. The simple medical tent that was constructed treated multiple cases of heat stroke and severe sunburns and exhaustion.
Depending on who you ask the festival was either wonderfully awesome or terribly bad. Either way it is a keystone in Ozarks Music History that we can reference and learn from. There hasn't been another music festival in Sedalia, MO since, just how I haven't had a birthday party since the random kids came. A lot of the earlier acts at the Ozark Music Festival went on to be some of the most popular acts in rock and even pop music. Below is a playlist of the acts who played.
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