July 28 – Anniversary of Watkins Glen's Summer Jam

nPostednon July 28, 2013

nWatkinsnGlen, New York, is famous for its Grand Prix auto racing.

nAtnleast, according to my husband.

Itnis not all that famous for its huge rock concert on this date inn1973—even though the concert was way bigger than the very-famousnWoodstock!

nAboutn150,000 people bought concert tickets and went to the raceway venuento see The Band, the Allman Brothers Band, and the Grateful Dead. Butnpeople without tickets came, too.

nAnlot of them.

Allntold, about 600,000 people poured into the raceway venue to see whatnwas, for most of them, a free concert! For the Guinness Book of WorldnRecords, it was a record-breaking audience (the world’s record has since been broken). For the concert-goers, itnwas a huge traffic jam that caused many to abandon their vehicles andnwalk 5 to 8 miles on a hot summer day. n

nAsnyou can imagine, many of the audience couldn’t see the stage, theynwere so far away. But there were 12 huge sound amplifiers spacednabout, so they could hear the music. Which is, after all, thenimportant thing.

nTherenwas a violent thunderstorm and drenching rain during the concert, sonmany concert-goers became covered in mud. Just like people atnWoodstock.

nTherenwere no reports of violence. This was a peaceful gathering—justnlike Woodstock.

nThenthing that really got to me were these statistics:

n“Many historians claimed that the Watkins Glen event was the largest gathering of people in the history of the United States. In essence,that meant that on July 28, one out of every 350 people living inAmerica at the time was listening to the sounds of rock at the NewYork state racetrack. Considering that most of those who attended the event hailed from the Northeast, and that the average age of those present was approximately seventeen to twenty-four, close to one out of every three young people from Boston to New York was at the festival.”

nWow!nOne out of three! That’s what we call a good turnout!

nNow,nonto my ulterior motive…

nThenreal reason I chose to talk about this huge concert is because Inlove-love-love-love Watkins Glen State Park! My husband and I took anlong full-of-awe, wonder-some walk along the gorge, both sides,nlooking at the pools and waterfalls and delighting in everynwater-worn rock and all the translucent colors of water. Go there!