Worst historical mucic fest? The Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival.

"Bull Island" or the "Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival" is sometimes considered to be one of the worst music festivals in history.

And yet between 2 and 300 000 people attended!

The Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival was a rock festival held on the Labor Day weekend of 1972 near Griffin, Indiana on Bull Island, a strip of land in Illinois but on the Indiana side of the Wabash River. A crowd estimated at 200,000 to 300,000 attended the concert, four times what the promoters estimated. Food and water were in short supply, and the gathering descended into relative chaos.

en.wikipedia.org...

Only two deaths could be attributed to the festival itself: an overdose and somebody who drowned in the river trying to gate-crash.

But most of the top bands pulled out (notably Rod Stewart and Black Sabbath), and the toilet ratio was 1 toilet: 40 000 people.
Misery further escalated when the already jammed unpaved logging road was turned muddy by rain.



So, was this the worst music festival in history?

One crapper per 40k people... lol RIP.

Maybe to the weekenders and teeny-boppers it was a ghastly shock to the system.

But to the seasoned hippies, it was probably like: "Oh think twice, it's just another day for me in paradise".

I suppose stumbling into any "ghetto" must be strange.

I live less than a half hour from there, but I don't think it was the worst. Woodstock 30th Anniversary wasn't so hot.

Well kiddies, as you can see, that's what comes from "Soda Pop"!

Regarding the toilets, they explain in the clip, many more toilets had been built at the initial venue.
But they never arrived.
Sad hey, like the Titanic life-boats.
So a swampy area of the island known as "Turd Fields" was used.
Must have been a "turd-world" experience.

a reply to: halfoldman


Well , it was Because this Band was NOT There............

Wikipedia being relatively diplomatic (in my OP):

" ... and the gathering descended into relative chaos ..."

Well as long as the chaos is "relative", I can relate, man.

a reply to: halfoldman

Still, a horrifying ordeal for anyone that needs to do a number 2 Can't expect every human there to wipe their butt with leaves after all. I can see that they somehow managed with minimal deaths but... Not pretty. Then again the French used to dump the same onto their streets and the Venice canals are only around 30% fecal matter so who am I to judge?


If it were a dozen or so people I can see them making doo but 40k plus is a bit excessive for a single venue regardless of size with such a port-a-potty problem.

Sad situation all around, they just wanted to have fun after all but spent 2/3rds the festival waiting in line like they are occupants of Disney world.

a reply to: halfoldman

Skinny-dipping at hippie fests.
Just saying, stay up-river:

"Woo-hoo, did you also jump in the icy river to be naked with chicks and feel so free"?

"Oh yeah ... I feel this sudden sense of relief".

a reply to: halfoldman

Wasn't there a festival a few years ago where people were trapped on an island with basically no food, no accomodations and barely any water for like a week? And to top it all off there was no festival and a bunch of people were basically just stranded and told to go # themselves or some such a thing?

a reply to: dug88

100k tickets for hell on earth, sign me up! Kendall Jenner OHMYGAWHD!!! Cheese and bread sandwiches....mmmmmmm.... Might as well go to a BLM rally for free at that point instead of blowing 2 mortgages with your wasted college fund.

a reply to: dug88

Yeah in the Caribbean, methinks.
Fire Island or something like that.

But I thought that was such a "Spanish Eddie" operation, there was no music to speak of.

I wanted a bit of music or rock history.

Behind every cloud is a silver lining.

This seems a bit like a "Mandela effect" to me.

Or maybe I was never as informed as I thought on these festivals.

But over 200 000 people?

And I know of Monetary, Concert in Hyde Park.

Strange I never heard of this.

a reply to: halfoldman

Woah, half old dude, that's some serious American rock trivia there and I'm pretty well versed in that crap and never heard of this fest. Makes me think of the Metallica riot at the Monsters Of Rock fest which I'm surprised turned out as well as it did and I should know, I was there. Got the snot beat out of me that day.

It's a helluva memory as I'd bet it is for the people that went to this one. I've been to hundreds of shows over the years and that MOR show stands out as most memorable. You only get to see a spit show once or twice in a lifetime and both of these shows were exactly that.

Just a bit unsure, I know I have 2 sources but is there any independent or 3rd source that can confirm this actually happened?

One can never be too sure, I guess.

a reply to: halfoldman

Not see the video? It happened and is documented.

In my opinion, the fact that there was indeed live music performed at this festival disqualifies it from being the worst ever. Definitely looked better than that Fyre Fest.

Black Sabbath and The Doors backing out would've pissed me off.

I don't know whether or not this article is actually correct, but it states that 3 people drowned.

The whole thing became a gigantic mess and thanks to a combination of bad weather, bad drugs, bad management and more, three concert goers drowned in the Wabash River.

Apparently somebody actually wanted to try it again...

What’s hilarious is that, in 2011, there was an announcement that there was going to be a Soda Pop Revisited music festival held on the Labor Day weekend of 2012 to mark the 40th anniversary of the original. It was planned that The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John and The Doobie Brothers (among others) would play. Guess what?

The festival never took place.

www.anorak.co.uk...

Like others, I too had never heard about this before.

originally posted by: BrokenCircles
Apparently somebody actually wanted to try it again...

What’s hilarious is that, in 2011, there was an announcement that there was going to be a Soda Pop Revisited music festival held on the Labor Day weekend of 2012 to mark the 40th anniversary of the original. It was planned that The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John and The Doobie Brothers (among others) would play. Guess what?

The festival never took place.

www.anorak.co.uk...

Like others, I too had never heard about this before.

Yeah, it didn't come off, but a local radio station did have a special day where they played live recordings of the acts that had been scheduled that day and the deejays played it like it was a live festival really happening and they were carrying it. Announced it like, "And the next group coming on stage is Chicago.... Let's listen in."