1973 Rock Concert Set All Time Attendance Record

(Newswire.net — December 26, 2015) Richland Hills, Texas — William “Red Ball” Henry, along with his sister Ellen, and a friend, were among the attendees.  “I heard about the concert and thought going would make for a good adventure,” Henry explained.  “We were three teenagers living in Minnesota who drove over one thousand miles to upstate New York to end up being part of the largest crowd ever to attend a rock and roll festival.”

The promoter was able to secure a permit to hold the event on the grounds of the Watkins Glen road racing course in Watkins Glen, New York.  For the event that was held on July 28, 1973, the promoter had optimistically printed one hundred and fifty thousand tickets with a sales price of ten dollars.

“We arrived the night before the concert and after setting up our tents in the dark and wishing that we had brought a flashlight, could quickly recognize that it was going to be huge,” Henry said.  “All night long and into the next morning, people just keep coming in droves.  By mid morning all of the tickets had been sold and the promoter announced from the stage that it was now a free concert.”

When the concert actually started The Grateful Dead opened by playing two long sets.  The Band followed The Grateful Dead with one two hour set.  These two sets were followed by The Allman Brothers Band who performed for three full hours.

After all three bands had played, there was an hour encore jam featuring musicians from all three of the bands.  Remarkably, all through the event, there were no reports of violence of any kind.  After the event was over the Guinness Book of World Records declared it to be the largest audience in history ever assembled for a rock concert.

“It was over in the early morning hours of Sunday and we were all exhausted, but we knew that we needed to hit the road right away to avoid the traffic jam that would surely come on Sunday morning.  We drove me trusty Spitfire straight through the night and got to Chicago about nine in the morning.  We picked up a newspaper and read that law enforcement expected that it would take up to three days for the crowd to completely disperse from the area, so we were very glad that we left when we did,” exclaimed Henry.

Summer Jam 1973 retains its spot in history as the largest rock concert that most of us have never even heard of.