Posted
on July 28, 2013
Watkins
Glen, New York, is famous for its Grand Prix auto racing.
At
least, according to my husband.
It
is not all that famous for its huge rock concert on this date in
1973—even though the concert was way bigger than the very-famous
Woodstock!
About
150,000 people bought concert tickets and went to the raceway venue
to see The Band, the Allman Brothers Band, and the Grateful Dead. But
people without tickets came, too.
A
lot of them.
All
told, about 600,000 people poured into the raceway venue to see what
was, for most of them, a free concert! For the Guinness Book of World
Records, it was a record-breaking audience (the world's record has since been broken). For the concert-goers, it
was a huge traffic jam that caused many to abandon their vehicles and
walk 5 to 8 miles on a hot summer day.
As
you can imagine, many of the audience couldn't see the stage, they
were so far away. But there were 12 huge sound amplifiers spaced
about, so they could hear the music. Which is, after all, the
important thing.
There
was a violent thunderstorm and drenching rain during the concert, so
many concert-goers became covered in mud. Just like people at
Woodstock.
There
were no reports of violence. This was a peaceful gathering—just
like Woodstock.
The
thing that really got to me were these statistics:
Wow!
One out of three! That's what we call a good turnout!
Now,
onto my ulterior motive...
The
real reason I chose to talk about this huge concert is because I
love-love-love-love Watkins Glen State Park! My husband and I took a
long full-of-awe, wonder-some walk along the gorge, both sides,
looking at the pools and waterfalls and delighting in every
water-worn rock and all the translucent colors of water. Go there!
 |
| My husband. One of a million photos we took of Watkins Glen. |
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on this date:
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