Pick a Day

Music History Events: Festivals

August 17, 1996 The ENIT Festival, organized by Perry Farrell after breaking ties with Lollapalooza, kicks off in Holmdel, New Jersey with Farrell's band Porno For Pyros headlining. It's one of the first ventures to sell tickets on the Internet, but poor planning dooms the festival and it plays just four dates.

August 16, 1996 In Plattsburgh, New York, Phish stage their first weekend festival, The Clifford Ball. These festivals become a tradition for the band, drawing diehard fans to remote locations to celebrate all things Phish.

June 3, 1990 The Big Day free festival takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, with Wet Wet Wet, Deacon Blue, Hothouse Flowers, Sheena Easton, Texas, Hue and Cry, John Martyn, Eddi Reader, The Average White Band and others. Channel 4 TV runs a six-hour live broadcast from the event.

June 21, 1982 The first "Fête de la Musique," a music festival also known as "World Music Day," is launched in Paris. Unlike corporate festivals, this one is about street music, and free to the public. The festival returns every June 21 and spreads throughout the world in various forms.

August 4, 1979 Led Zeppelin headline the Knebworth Festival in the UK, one of just four concerts they play in 1979. They play a second show at Knebworth a week later to meet the unprecedented demand.

June 16, 1970 The organizers of the Woodstock music festival report that they have lost over $1.2 million on the event (money which they will later make up through movie and soundtrack rights).

May 23, 1970 Grateful Dead play outside North America for the first time, doing a 4-hour set at the Hollywood Music Festival in England. Mungo Jerry and Steppenwolf are also on the bill.

January 26, 1970 The Ourimbah rock festival, Australia's first, opens to an audience of 11,000. The festival results in 26 arrests.

August 19, 1969 Cleanup begins at Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York, where the Woodstock festival has finished up. Bulldozers are used to wrangle the trash into a pit, where it is burned.

August 14, 1969 It's the day before Woodstock, and thousands of people show up early and camp out.

June 20, 1969 Jimi Hendrix headlines the Newport Pop Festival, which is marred by violence as police take action to stop the gate-crashers.

December 26, 1968 D.A. Pennebaker's documentary Monterey Pop, which chronicles the 1967 Monterey International Pop Music Festival (where The Who smashed their instruments and Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire) opens in theaters.

August 4, 1968 The Newport Pop Festival attracts 100,000 with Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and The Animals.

August 12, 1967 Fleetwood Mac make their stage debut at the National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor, England, alongside such acts as Donovan, Cream, The Small Faces, and Chicken Shack, featuring a young Christine Perfect (later known as Christine McVie).

June 10, 1967 Outdoor rock: California's Magic Mountain Music Festival, considered the first rock music festival, features Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and The Byrds - the crowd of 15,000 is dwarfed by the 200,000 at the Monterey Pop Festival the following weekend.

June 19, 1965 The Who, Spencer Davis, and Marianne Faithfull appear at the Uxbridge Folk & Blues Festival.

July 17, 1954 The Newport Jazz Festival, the world's first such event, debuts on the tennis courts of the Newport Casino in Rhode Island.

July 29, 2021 After postponing the previous year's festival due to the coronavirus outbreak, Lollapalooza returns in full force for a four-day music event in Chicago's Grant Park. But there's a catch: Festivalgoers must provide proof of vaccinations or negative COVID tests to gain entry. Those who have tested negative but are unvaccinated also have to wear a mask.More

June 10, 2017 Gorillaz stage their first Demon Dayz Festival, which takes place at Dreamland amusement park in Margate, Kent, England. Performers include Mavis Staples, De La Soul and Carly Simon, all of whom appeared on their album Humanz.

October 8, 2016 Robert Plant and St. Vincent play the Festival of Disruption in Los Angeles, an event staged by the director David Lynch that includes film screenings and meditation.

June 26, 2015 Florence + the Machine become the first female-fronted band to headline the Glastonbury festival since Shakespear's Sister in 1992.

August 17, 2012 The first Knotfest goes down in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Curated by the band Slipknot, it features amusement park entertainment and lots of music, including performances by Deftones and Lamb Of God.

September 17, 2011 Huey Lewis & the News play at the 54th Monterey Jazz Festival in California.

June 11, 2011 Bonnaroo celebrates its 10th anniversary by hosting a performance of Dr. John's Desitively Bonnaroo, the 1974 album that inspired the festival's name. The performance reunites the New Orleans R&B veteran with the album's producer, Allen Toussaint, and legendary backing band The Meters. More

September 25, 2010 Bush perform at the second Epicenter Music Festival in Fontana, California. This concert marks the band's first live appearance since 2002.

April 17, 2010 When Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros frontman Alex Ebert takes the stage at Coachella, he clumsily knocks a microphone stand into the crowd. A guy in the audience catches it with his forehead, and blood spills all over the place. Ebert, horrified, gives the guy his sportcoat and his shirt to staunch the bleeding, and performs the set topless. It proves a breakout performance for the band, whose song "Home" starts showing up everywhere.

June 28, 2008 During her performance at Glastonbury Festival, Amy Winehouse punches a fan she mistakenly believes had thrown a hat at her beehive.More

August 10, 2007 Laura Marling shares the stage with other Indie artists like Crystal Castles and Mystery Jets at the first-ever Underage Festival in Victoria Park, London. The festival, which grew out of a series of club nights in the Elephant and Castle district of South London, is open only to 13-17 year olds. At 17, Marling fits right in.

July 23, 2005 For the first time, Lollapalooza stays put, with the first of two shows at Grant Park in Chicago. Pixies, Billy Idol and Weezer all perform.

November 13, 2004 After several years of feuding, the rap group A Tribe Called Quest get back together for a reunion show at the Rock the Bells festival. It's also the night when their friend and fellow rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard from the Wu-Tang Clan dies. A Tribe Called Quest open their show with a tribute to ODB and perform some of Wu Tang's songs to start the set.