Summer festival season is upon us, so while you rock out in the hot sun we wanted to highlight the OG festival posters in our June auction!!
AOR-3.1 Woodstock Music & Arts Festival
This gem needs no introduction!
Woodstock Music and Arts Festival is the festival that started it all, and also signified the end of the 1960s. The original printing (AOR-3.1) was produced in two different sizes. This is the large version, measuring out at 24” x 36.5".
The iconic show was met with so many technical issues, including too much rain, which led to mud and electrical issues. The performances by Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, CSNY, The Band, and Janis Joplin have become that of rock legend.
The crowd for this three day festival was estimated to be around 100,000. The event featured performances by Chuck Berry, Fleetwood Mac, Canned Heat, Flatt & Scruggs, as well as a rousing performance by Grateful Dead, leaning into their Aoxomoxoa & Live-Dead material.
Another interesting note, this was not the original Miami Pop Festival, a separate festival was held seven months earlier at the same venue with the same name. The other festival was held by a co-creator of Woodstock, Michael Lang & also the trainer of Flipper, Richard O'Barry.
1982 Grateful Dead Ventura County Fairgrounds
This event was promoted by the legendary Bill Graham and was advertised as "A Week-End at the Beach." Grateful Dead kicked off their series of summer shows with a performance on the beach at Ventura County Fairgrounds.
1969 AOR-3.2 David Byrd Woodstock Festival Wallkill New York Poster
This is an interesting historic "what if." The iconic Woodstock Music & Arts Festival was originally intended to be held in Wallkill, New York until the permits were denied. With a month to go before the festival, the promoters scrambled and moved it to Bethel, New York, nearly an hour away from the original site, to Max Yasgur's dairy farm.
This original pre-concert first pressing was designed by David Byrd, mostly known for his Fillmore East work. Much harder to come by & these rarely surface.
2014 Baron Wolman Woodstock Special Artist's Edition LE Signed & Numbered Hardbound Book
Not a poster at all, but instead a photo book with pictures from Woodstock. Baron Wolman began his photojournalism career in 1967 for Rolling Stone. He photographed the 1960s rock explosion, including pictures of Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and so many others.
This is the artist edition limited to 250 and signed/numbered.
1969 Northern California Folk Rock Festival Poster
Despite their listing on the poster, Led Zeppelin did not in fact play this festival, but that's always the fun part of 1960s rock posters. The "almosts" and the "what if" of it all.
However, Jimi Hendrix did play, as well as Jefferson Airplane, Muddy Waters, Taj Mahal, Steve Miller, Santana and so many other greats.
Local radio station KSJO warned listeners that the acts advertised on the poster were not performing, which led to a lawsuit, paid for by Led Zeppelin, against the promoter, Bob Blodgett. In response he paid Jimi Hendrix $30,000, and ungodly amount of money for 1969, to fly in and play for thirty minutes.
This summer-tastic auction is open for bids until June 27th at 9pm Eastern.
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