RANDOM THOUGHTS ON FESTIVALS

Watkins Glen

It seems appropriate that the last festival I mention is actually the first camping festival I ever attended.  What a festival to be my first.  The festival was actually called ‘A Day on the Lawn’ with the Grateful Dead, the Band, and the Allman Brothers.  There were 100,000 people who purchased a ticket for the event.  My great friends Rich Wagner, Tom Earp, Mike Heath, Johnny Mannino, Jay Sitkin and I all had purchased tickets.  We knew this was going to be big.  We didn’t know it was going to have 750,000 people.

My Summer Jam Ticket

Traveling north from PA, as soon as we crossed the state line, we came upon blue lights and the New York State Police.  They informed us they were conducting a “drugs confiscation,” that we should turn over all of our drugs and be on our way.  Of course we had to evaluate what to tell these guys.  Rich Wagner, our van driver asked the trooper what might happen if we refuse to turn over any drugs.  The officer said that they would search our van.  We let them search and they found a substantial amount of pot and a rotting watermelon.

As the officer was putting his ‘evidence’ in the garbage bags they had, he showed Rich all of the contraband that they had collected so far.  The trooper told Rich to look for him on Saturday and he would sell our pot back to us.  They didn’t get everything.

The main highway into Watkins Glen Speedway

After pulling out of the traffic stop and over the next hill we could see a string of headlights going out as far as you could see.  It was bumper to bumper traffic for miles into Watkins Glen and it was only Thursday night.  It was big.

We camped at turn 2 of the race track.  Amazingly, right after we arrived, our buddies from home, Dean Russler, Jeff Yoder, and Jeffrey Sitkin pulling in next to us.  It was amazing.  We didn’t travel together. The next morning (Friday), we packed our food and beer in a single cooler, walked to the concert grounds proper, gathered a couple of the hundreds of bales of straw that were set out, spreading straw on the ground, and sat down about 200 feet from the stage in front a chain link fence around the spotlight scaffold.  We sat down mid morning about 26 hours before the show was supposed to begin.  We also were able to go out and gather 9 gallons of jugged water.  The festival set up large boxes full of the water jugs.  We were fortunate because the jugs disappeared immediately.  It was still 24 hours before the show time.

Gallon Jugs of Water

Friday mid-afternoon the Band came on first (as part of the announced sound check, and played 2 ½ tunes, complained a bit about the sound then left. The Allman Brothers came on stage and played a couple tunes including one extended jam for their sound check.   After 6 PM the Grateful Dead came on stage announcing that they needed to do their sound check.  They added that the crowd (that was now over 100,000 and still 18 hours till the show), should not listen.  After all, it was a sound check. The sound check last for two sets and ended around 11 PM. This was the first time we had ever heard ‘Sugaree’.  I also vaguely, kinda, sorta remember the boys doing ‘Tennessee Jed’.  I was going to school in Tennessee at the time; it was exciting to sing the chorus.

Laying in the mud (above) & Watkins Glen Stage (below)

After the show, we settled down sleeping on the straw where we sat all day; all of us in a straight line lying on the straw sharing the single unzipped sleeping bag on top.  We slept a bit and waited for the main event on Saturday.

The Dead came out promptly at 11:30 AM on Saturday to play another 5 hours.  They didn’t duplicate anything from the previous evening’s sound check performing many tunes from the Europe 72 album.  They were fantastic.  How could anything top this.

The Band followed in the late afternoon and played a very nice but uneven set until the big storm rolled in with its lightning and thunder.  The band stopped because of water getting on the equipment.  Garth Hudson’s organ was dry allow hiim to play some storm music during the rain.  I distinctly remember someone climbing up the metal scaffolding to hold out the Canadian Flag as the Band played.  Lightning all around.  Nobody seemed to worry about it. 

Our liittle group hunkered down under whatever we had as cover.  Mostly we had garbage bags which we wore to stay somewhat dry.  We also had the advantage of the straw we had spread on the ground.  Our spot did not get muddy like most of the concert grounds.  Mostly, getting wet was the only option.  Getting soaked while listening to Hudson accompany the storm was an intense experience. Tom Earp had brought a poncho which he shared with a cute little chick from Quebec.  He spoke very little english and desparately wanted to be dry.  So she spotted Tom’s poncho and climbed in under it on Tom’s lap. She stayed until the rain ended.  We never did find out what they talked about under that pancho.

Festival Carnage Sunday morning

The Allman Brothers followed, rocking the place for over three hours.  Sublime.  I remember them playing ‘Statesboro Blues’ and particularly ‘Whipping Post’.  Finally, around midnight, all three bands came back on stage for a group encore playing for another couple hours.  An incredible show.

During the final jam and later in the night, our group, one by one, all worked our way back to the van at turn 2 of the racetrack and slept in the van until mid morning Sunday.  Everyone made it back except Johnny Mannino.  Where were Johnny and his dog, Nubs?  We were worried and spent the next four hours scouring the ruins of the massive festival looking for signs of Johnny.  We read every note on every message board.  No Johnny.  We traveled directly to Johnny Mannino’s house to tell his mother that we had lost Johnny.  When she answered the door, I think I said to Mrs. Mannino that we had lost Johnny.  She said, “No you didn’t.”  He was in his room asleep.  We were relieved and frustrated at the same time.  We did get to see the amazing festival remains, something we would not have done if Johnny had not gotten lost.

This festival was hard work as it happened.  We had a great time with great music, but rationing food, beer, and water was a challenge.  Keeping people from drinking out of the pee jugs was also always an issue.  I cannot tell you how indescribably awful the porta john’s were, especially when the doors were opened.

Even with the gigantic crowd, our group of six people managed to run into 10 other friends from our hometown in Central PA.  You know who you are. [Dick Runtagh, Steve Shirk, Marie Pupo, John and Lyn Hendricks, Arthur and Rick Miller, Jeff Yoder, Jeffery Sitkin, Dennis Russler]   

The Watkins Glen concert was a common experience that we shared with each other.  Nobody else can fully understand what is was like and why it was important to us.  It certainly influenced me as you have seen above.

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