| Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival |
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The Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival was a Rock Festival held on the Labor Day weekend of 1972 near Griffin, Indiana on Bull Island, Illinois. A crowd estimated at 200,000 to 300,000 attended the concert. The promoters of Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival had originally planned the festival to be held at Chandler, Indiana a small town near Evansville , Indiana. However, various court battles stopped the festival from performance anywhere in Indiana. Shortly before the start of the concert, the promoters decided upon a site near Griffin, Indiana referred to locally as "Bull Island". Due to the changing course of the Wabash River , Bull Island is located east of the Wabash River but is part of the State of Illinois . Thus, Bull Island was out of the jurisdiction of the various Indiana courts. The local Illinois government in the small town of Carmi, Illinois , was surprised that the venue had suddenly ended up in its backyard, and was unable to stop the concert. The scheduled lineup included Black Sabbath , Joe Cocker , Allman Brothers , John Mayall , Cheech & Chong , Canned Heat , Fleetwood Mac , Ballinjack , Amboy Dukes , Bob Seger , Bang , Ravi Shankar , Albert King , Brownsville Station , Mike Quatro , Gentle Giant , Black Oak Arkansas , The Eagles , The Chambers Brothers , Boones Farm , Slade , Nazareth , and Delbert & Glenn . However, only a few bands such as Sha Na Na , Black Oak Arkansas , Cheech And Chong , Foghat , Albert King , and Gentle Giant actually performed. Since Bull Island was technically part of Illinois but the only access was through Indiana, police protection and crowd control during the festival were non-existent. The only police near the festival were three county sheriffs from White County, Illinois . The concert became a "free concert" on the evening of the first day. Bull Island was accessible by only two roads, causing massive traffic backups for 20 miles (30 km) from the festival. Over the three days, the festival drifted steadily into anarchy. Food and water were in short supply. A torrential rain soaked the festival. A truck bringing food into the festival was hijacked, looted and burned. Drugs were freely available in a make-shift "shopping district" where pushers proudly displayed their wares. Various bands cancelled. Three concert goers drowned in the Wabash River. While Woodstock was a festival of love and tolerance, the Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival was a clear indication that the days of peace, love and rock & roll were over. |
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