The New Orleans Pop Festival took place on Labor Day Weekend 1969 in Prairieville, LA, up Airline Highway from New Orleans. Woodstock happened in upstate New York August 15-17, 1969 and many of the top bands that performed at Woodstock were also a part of the New Orleans Pop Festival.
While the Mississippi Gulf Coast was cleaning up from the devastation of Hurricane Camille, an estimated 30,000 young people gathered in Prairieville for a good time. At the time, pop festivals were a relatively new phenomenon. The Boomer generation celebrated peace, love, sex, drugs, and rock n roll. I was there and at one point I passed out after overconsuming a potent mixture of Jim Beam and Fresca. That was not my drink of choice, but a bottle of Jim Beam and a can of Fresca proved to me a mixture of opportunity. Passed out in the backseat of my car, it was the horns of Janis Joplin and Big Brother and The Holding Company that awakened me from my drunken stupor.
But the real highlight of the festival for me was meeting Jesse Colin Young, the lead singer of The Youngbloods, who had a huge hit in "Get Together." The lyrics, "Come on people now smile on your brother everybody try to love one another, right now" reflected the collective ambience of the crowd and the mentality of hippie beads and sunflower seeds.
I met Jesse along the fence separating the crowd from the backstage area and I believe this was my first encounter with a rock star. Through my career I have had the opportunity to meet some of the biggest rock stars but I think meeting Jesse Colin Young was my first encounter with a rocker. I was able to get his attention and we had a brief conversation and I asked if he wanted to have a beer (like he couldn't get a beer backstage) and he said yes. Imagine how cool I felt when I brought Jesse Colin Young back to the blanket area where my friends were and introduced him to everyone and we drank beer. That was an amazing moment.
Here are a few of the bands that performed at the New Orleans Pop Festival:
Janis Joplin
Jefferson Airplane
The Youngbloods
It's A Beautiful Day
Iron Butterfly
Canned Heat
Country Joe and The Fish
Santana
Chicago Transit Authority (Before their name change to Chicago)
T. Rex
The Byrds
Potliquor (local band)
White Fox (local band)
Another local performer was Deacon John and the Electric Soul Train. As we remember the historic New Orleans Pop Festival on the show, I had a great conversation with Deacon John about his memories of being part of that pop festival.
Deacon John is still performing and as you will be able to tell from my conversation with him - he is still alive and full of energy! Hear it in the audio player above.
