Ozark Music Festival

The Ozark Music Festival was held in July 1974 on the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri. While the Woodstock Festival from 1969 is the most well-known rock festival, the Ozark Music Festival was one of the largest music festivals ever held, while at the same time, it was also one of the least remembered festivals. "No Hassles Guaranteed" was the motto of the festival.^{[citation needed]}

Some estimates have put the crowd count at 350,000 people which would make this one of the largest music events (rock festivals) in history.^{[citation needed]}

Promotion

A company called Musical Productions Inc. (MPI) from Kansas City promoted the festival, and assured officials from the Missouri Department of Agriculture (the state agency which oversaw the State Fair) and the Sedalia Chamber of Commerce that the three-day weekend event would be a blue-grass and “pop rock” festival with no more than 50,000 tickets sold.^{[citation needed]}

Even though the festival was not scheduled to start until Friday, thousands had arrived by Thursday night and there was a steady line of cars, trucks, vans, hitchhikers and even an occasional hippie camper slowly winding towards Sedalia and the fairgrounds. While in line, festival-goers were advised that once inside the grounds, vehicles would not be allowed back outside until the festival was over. So many of them left a vehicle outside the fence for beer runs.^{[citation needed]}

Performers

Posters [1] for the festival announced that some of the best bands in country and southern rock would be performing, including:

• Bachman–Turner Overdrive
• Blue Öyster Cult
• The Eagles
• America
• Marshall Tucker Band
• The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
• Boz Scaggs
• Ted Nugent
• David Bromberg
• Leo Kottke
• Cactus
• The Earl Scruggs Revue
• Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Electric Flag
• Bruce Springsteen (did not perform)
• Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
• Joe Walsh and Barnstorm (one month later Walsh joined the Eagles)
• The Souther Hillman Furay Band
• The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
• Charlie Daniels Band
• Triphammer
• Bill Quateman
• Fresh Start
• Babe Ruth
• Locomotiv GT
• Aerosmith
• Shawn Phillips
• REO Speedwagon
• Spirit

Recollections of the concert

On Friday morning, many Sedalians woke up with sleeping hippies, bikers and groupies sprawled across their lawns, and a long line of bumper-to bumper traffic clogging the roads into town. Some residents were not able to get to work, and for many, their fears of impending chaos at the Fairgrounds were realized in the days to come.^{[citation needed]}

Midnight Special MC, Wolfman Jack hosted the event, and was on stage nightly to introduce the groups and to encourage people to stay cool and “clear the light towers of people before they fall."^{[citation needed]}

The stage was a huge double sided affair, with one band performing and a second band ready to go with just the turning on and off of spotlights.^{[citation needed]}

The roar of the crowd was deafening when The Eagles dedicated “Already Gone” to Nixon and his impending impeachment. Barnstorm sang “ Rocky Mountain Way” as “bases are loaded and Nixon’s at bat;" yet another politically charged moment that brought thousands to their feet cheering. The crowd also cheered wildly when the Eagles edited a line from "Peaceful, Easy Feeling" and sang, "I'd like to sleep with you in SEDALIA tonight, with a millon stars all around."^{[citation needed]}

By Saturday morning the festival was going full force and the town was in gridlock. The festival had grown to around 184,000 attendees, and all of the bands had to be shuttled in and out by helicopter. Many of the fans were seen walking around the fair grounds naked throughout the festival trying to keep cool and find water, because the heat was significant, leading to an outbreak of dehydration throughout the grounds. Festival-goers camped wherever there was room, but it was so hot you couldn't sleep inside your tent. And sleeping outside was no safer, with bottle rockets landing next to you in the middle of the night. Between trips to the stage, we entertained ourselves in whatever ways we could find. I had brought a giant, inflatable banana, and someone else in my group had a large inflatable baseball. When we produced these, dozens of the people camping around us joined in a pickup game of banana-baseball. There were long lines at the few water fountains or spigots that worked, even though the water itself was warm.^{[citation needed]}

It is believed that the entire concert was filmed by NBC for future release, but the footage was confiscated by the courts due to the amount of damage done to the city and fairgrounds. This would explain Wolfman Jack's presence and nightly MCing of the concerts. While this may be rumored, as a person setting up and taking the bands down, I never witnessed NBC filming anything back stage.^{[citation needed]}

Wolfman Jack would be in one of the numerous RV's parked behind the stage nightly to make announcements as needed. One time when the crowd was climbing on the towers, I personally went to get him. It was a "pot-smoke" filled trailer with plenty of girls.^{[citation needed]}

The "No Hassles Guaranteed" advertisement was supposedly meant to be a clear indication that the festival would be a wide open drug event and that the community would soon be invaded by tens of thousands of drug culture groupies.^{[citation needed]}

Drugs were bought and sold openly, and some people reported an entire roll of “drug” vendors set up with signs and sample products. People were observed carrying milk cartons filled with marijuana for sale, and many even wore hand-made signs around their necks advertising 'Hash for sale'.^{[citation needed]}

The PA system in the campgrounds interspersed messages of lost people with cautionary advice to avoid overdosing. Couples were observed openly engaging in sexual activity.^{[citation needed]}

There was no "law" in Sedalia that weekend. The storage barn, where golf carts were kept for an adjacent golf course, was broken into and the golf carts were seen all around the fairgrounds being driven by all sorts of people. At one point, I saw a naked man driving a golf cart toward me on a path and one of the tires was flat so the cart was lurching from side to side on every turn of the tire. As he went by I realized that he had a naked woman strapped into the back where the golf clubs are supposed to go. She was completely passed out but her body was lurching back and forth with the vehicle as they drove away. There was an open drug market going on and, before it closed due to running out of food, the Bananza Steak House had people smoking pot from a hookah in the dining room.^{[citation needed]}

If you attended and felt safe during the festival, it was in spite of the fact that The Hells Angels biker club acted as the law on the fairgrounds. And it has been reported that several brothels were set up in buses on the fairgrounds under the supervision of these guardians.^{[citation needed]}

To get relief from the heat, many festival goers went to a nearby quarry and swam in the cool water. Nudity and sex was open and rampant at the quarry as it was on the fairgrounds.^{[citation needed]}

Hourly helicopters flights by the Missouri National Guard flew over the two main stages, carrying drug overdoses away from the festival.^{[citation needed]}

College dropout, Steve Nowell worked for a company that serviced, cleaned and santized "port-o-pots" for the festival. The density of the crowd made it nearly impossible for Nowell and co-workers to get in to do their jobs. When they were finally able to get in they discovered the crowds had tipped the units to empty them out, and had proceeded to reuse them. The scene and stench were almost too much for the eyes and nose to bear. Nowell, now a Boulder, CO businessman related this experience as "kick in the rear" to go back and finish school. (Conversations with Steve Nowell)

There were only about three liquor stores open at the time and by Saturday they were all totally sold out. No more could be ordered because the traffic was so thick you couldn't bring any trucks in. The only place to buy beer was the local grocery store and people report waiting in line three hours to get it.^{[citation needed]}

Three of us drove all night from Lone Wolf, Oklahoma to get in early to stake out a good location on the fairgrounds only to find tens of thousands of folks had the same plan in mind. It took us until noon to get onto the grounds. By then we were hungry and thirsty so we started looking for something cold to wash down the Missouri humidity. The town was locked down with many businesses closed (or with signs up telling the "hippies" to go elsewhere). After a couple of hours we found a case of grossly over-priced Schlitz beer (we were offered several interesting "trades" for the brew, but passed). The place was amazing. The music was terrific and the people carefree (for the most part). All these years later I still remember the three days in Sedalia. Somewhere I still have the 50 or so photos I took of some of the more "memorable" attendees.^{[citation needed]}

Two friends and I rode a bus in from Salina, Kansas, getting there on Thursday night. By that time, there were already several thousand people on the fairgrounds. We had brought a small tent, backpacks and sleeping bags, but that night was the only night we got to use it as a tent. As the crowd grew, people kept accidentally knocking it over, so we converted it into a little "lean-to." That was probably for the best, because it let us use it during the 100 degree plus heat of the day as shade while we watched the concert, and let what little breeze there was go through. I remember walking down to the showers, and there were many people having sex in the showers. I also remember seeing people selling pot along this fence where there were state troopers standing nearby, but powerless to do anything being so outnumbered. I too, remember Wolfman Jack as emcee, often times telling the crowd to "hold up their joints." There was also an overly-hyped guitar battle, on Saturday night.^{[citation needed]}

Aftermath

By Monday, July 22, the festival crowd had left, leaving a field of garbage behind. Damage estimates of $100,000 were reported, and with the Missouri State Fair only a few weeks away the fairgrounds had to be cleaned up quickly. Damage and garbage remained, along with a lingering few waiting around for their friends who had been sent to medical facilities for treatment for dehydration.^{[citation needed]}

After the festival the city of Sedalia only had a few weeks to clean the whole mess up for the Missouri State fair, so helicopters were used for spraying lime over the fairgrounds as a precaution against the possible outbreak of disease.^{[citation needed]}

On the ground, bulldozers scraped up the topsoil, which was (reportedly) littered with discarded drug paraphernalia and gnawed cobs of corn from a neighboring field along with Mountains of contaminated dirt and garbage which were hauled to the county landfills.^{[citation needed]}

Meanwhile, festival-goers crowded the Interstate 70 rest stops to catch up on sleep lost during the weekend. Tents, cots and sleeping bags were spread throughout rest stops all along the highway. Even those of us who lived in Missouri stopped to sleep for a few hours before returning home.

Senate Committee report

The Missouri Senate met in October 1974 and discussed the events of the music festival in the committee report. The report states that, "The Ozark Music Festival can only be described as a disaster. It became a haven for drug pushers who were attracted from throughout the United States. The scene made the degradation of Sodom and Gomorrah appear mild. Natural and unnatural sex acts became a spectator sport ... Frequently, nude women promoted drugs with advertisements on their bodies."^[1] But most people there had an incredible time; the people setting up the event failed to prepare properly for the large crowds (the government had to step in to help).

References

1. ^ Missouri Highway Patrol. "Troop A History," page 20.

Website posted by a local Sedalia business.

<http://www.ozarkmusicfestival.com/>

Other sources

Senate Select Committee on the Rock Festival (held at Sedalia State Fairgrounds, July 18–22, 1974). Transcript of proceedings. Library Listing .