Newport 69 Pop Festival begins and Jimi Hendrix gets $120,000 to appear

Newport 69 Pop Festival begins and Jimi Hendrix gets $120,000 to appear, 150,000 attend the event on June 20, 1969

The Newport 69 Pop Festival

held in Costa Mesa, California, August 3-4, 1968, was the first music concert ever to have more than 100,000 paid attendees.

There were two separate events staged in the late 1960s that are commonly referred to as the "Newport Pop Festival." The first was called the Newport Pop Festival, held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, the weekend of August 3-4, 1968. The second event was originally billed as "Newport 69," and was held over the three-day weekend of June 20-22, 1969 in Northridge, California at Devonshire Downs. In published writings over the last 40 years, this latter event has been referred to as the "

Newport 69 Pop Festival

" the "Newport Pop Festival 1969" and simply the "Newport Pop Festival." Subsequently, much confusion has been created over the years between the 1968 and 1969 events. Some of this confusion was generated by the participating musicians themselves who, later, in their interviews, kept getting the two events mixed up. The latter event was organized by Mark Robinson (age 25) who was one of the three promoters of the original Newport Pop Festival in 1968. The other two promoters of the 68 event were Gary R. Schmidt (age 26) and his father Al Schmidt. Al was not a rock n roller but an entrepreneural business man that helped with the money and licensing. There was a brief law suit between the two Schmidts and Robinson just prior to the "Newport 69" show which the Schmidts had declined to be involved in because of the cost of the acts, The entire band budget for the 68 show was under 50,000 dollars while Robinson paid Jimi Hendrix alone 50,000 dollars for the 69 event. This was an amount of money unheard of at that time for a rock act. The 68 show made money and the 69 show did not. The law suit was over trade names and the last few days before the 69 show they had to use disclaimers in advertising "not afiliated with the Newport Pop Festival" and they would not have been able to do a "Newport 70". show using that name.

Retro History for June 20 The 50s 60s 70s 80s

Retro History For The Decade 1980

1988 Curtis Strange wins U.S. Open golf tournament
1988 Haiti's general assembly dissolves
1988 New York City WABC-AM becomes flagship radio station of New Jersey Devils
1988 "Price is Right" model Janice Pennington is knocked out by a TV camera
1988 WABC officially becomes the New Jersey Devils new home radio
1988 Supreme Court upholds a law that made it illegal for private clubs to discriminate against women and minorities
1987 Chuti Tiu, 17, of Wisconsin, crowned America's Junior Miss
1987 Johnny Carson marries 4th wife Alexis Mass
1986 Doctors at Bethesda Naval remove 2 small benign polyps from Reagan's colon
1986 Jim Fregosi replaces Tony LaRussa as White Sox manager
1984 A's Dave Kingman hits his 3rd grand slam and 14th lifetime
1984 Amber Kvanli, of Minnesota, crowned America's Junior Miss
1983 83rd U.S. Golf Open: Larry Nelson shoots a 280 at Oakmont CC PA
1983 New York Yankee Bobby Murcer retires
1982 82nd U.S. Golf Open: Tom Watson shoots a 282 at Pebble Beach GL California
1982 Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin arrives in Washington
1982 Jan Stephenson wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf Open
1982 Pete Rose is 5th to appear in 3,000 games (Cobb, Musial, Aaron, Yaz)
1981 Guitarist Gerry Cott quits Boomtown Rats
1981 Mudjahedin uprises against Iran regime
1981 Pope John Paul II hospitalized for 55 days for infection
1980 California Angels Freddie Patek, hits 3 home runs and double to beat Red Sox 20-2
1980 Roberto Duran takes WBC welterweight title from Sugar Ray Leonard at Olympic Stadium in Montreal by unanimous decision

Retro History For The Decade 1970

1978 1st 6 teams of Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) granted-Iowa, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Chicago, Minnesota and Dayton
1977 Menahem Begin forms Israeli government
1977 Oil enters Trans-Alaska pipeline exits 38 days later at Valdez
1976 76th U.S. Golf Open: Jerry Pate shoots a 277 at Atlanta AC in Duluth Ga
1976 Carl Fugate, Starkwether accomplice, paroled
1976 Czechoslovakia becomes European soccer champ
1976 Joanne Carner wins LPGA Hoosier Golf Classic
1973 Chicago's Cy Acosta is 1st AL pitcher to bat since DH rule (strikeout)
1973 Juan Peron returns to Argentina
1973 San Francisco Giants Bobby Bonds sets NL record with 22 lead off home runs
1971 Sandra Palmer wins LPGA Heritage Golf Open
1970 "Ray Stevens Show," debuts on NBC-TV
1970 British government of Edward Heath forms, with Margaret Thatcher
1970 Oriole's Brooks Robinson get his 2,000 career hit, a 3 run home run

Retro History For The Decade 1960

1969 Newport '69 begins and Jimi Hendrix gets $120,000 to appear, 150,000 attend the event
1969 Georges Pompidou sworn in as president of France
1969 White Rhodesia agrees to race separation
1968 Jim Hines becomes 1st person to run 100 meters in under 10 seconds
1967 Phillies Larry Jackson beats New York Mets for 18th straight time
1966 66th U.S. Golf Open: Billy Casper shoots a 278 at Olympic CC in SF
1966 Sheila Scott completes 1st round-the-world solo flight by a woman
1965 Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Cosmopolitan Golf Open
1964 64th U.S. Golf Open: Ken Venturi shoots a 278 at Congressional CC MD
1963 1st Mayor's Trophy Game, Mets beat Yankees 6-2
1963 Beatles form "Beatles Ltd" to handle their income
1963 U.S. and U.S.S.R. agree to set up Hot Line
1960 12nd Emmy Awards: Playhouse 90, Robert Stack and Jane Wyatt
1960 Federation of Mali (& Senegal) becomes independent of France
1960 Floyd Patterson KOs Ingemar Johansson in 5 for heavywgt boxing title
1960 Heavyweight Floyd Patterson KOs Ingemar Johnstown (New York City)

Retro History For The Decade 1950

1958 New Zealand all out 47 vs. England at Lord's Laker 4-13, Lock 5-17
1956 Venezuelan Super Constellation crashes in New Jersey, 74 killed
1956 At Detroit's Briggs Stadium, Mickey Mantle hits 2 Billy Hoeft pitches into right center field bleachers (no else hits 1 there)
1955 "Almost Crazy" opens at Longacre Theater New York City for 16 performances
1953 Louise Suggs wins LPGA Western Golf Open
1951 Cleveland Indian Bobby Avila hits 3 home runs, double and single vs Red Sox
1950 Dutch Air Force base Tjililitan given to Indonesia
1950 Joe Dimaggio's 2,000th hit, Yankees beat Indians 8-2

Have a groovy vintage retro day!


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