HISTORY OF THE EVENT: The Texas International Pop Festival was a music festival held at Lewisville, Texas, on Labor Day weekend, August 30-September 1, 1969. It occurred two weeks after Woodstock. The site for the event was the newly-opened Dallas International Motor Speedway, located on the east side of Interstate 35e, across from the intersection with Round Grove Rd.
The festival was the brainchild of Angus G. Wynne III, son of the founder of the Six Flags Amusement Park. Wynne was a concert promoter who had attended the Atlanta International Pop Festival on the July Fourth weekend. He decided to put a festival on near Dallas, and joined with the Atlanta festival's main organizer, Alex Cooley, forming the company Interpop Superfest.
Artists performing at the festival were: LED ZEPPELIN, B.B. King, Canned Heat, Chicago (then called Chicago Transit Authority), Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, Freddie King, Grand Funk Railroad, Herbie Mann, Incredible String Band, James Cotton, JANIS JOPLIN, JOHNNY WINTER, Nazz, Ramon and Ramon and the Four Daddios, Rotary Connection, Sam and Dave, SANTANA, SHIVA'S HEADBAND, Sly and the Family Stone, Space Opera, Spirit, Sweetwater, Ten Years After, and Tony Joe White.
North of the festival site was the campground on Lake Lewisville, where hippie attendees skinny-dipped and passed bars of Ivory soap (Ivory floats). Also on the campground was the free stage, where some bands played after their main stage gig and several bands not playing on the main stage performed. It was on this stage that Wavy Gravy, head of the Hog Farm commune, acquired his name. (At Woodstock, he was Hugh Romney.)
The Merry Pranksters, Ken Kesey's group, was in charge of the free stage and camping area. While Kesey was neither at the Texas event nor at Woodstock, his right hand man, Ken Babbs, and his psychedelic bus, Further (Ferther) were. The Hog Farm provided security, a trip tent and free food.
Attendance at the festival remains unknown, but is estimated at around 150,000. As with Woodstock, there were no violent crimes reported. There was one death, due to heat, and one birth.
Learn more about the original Texas International Pop Festival at TexasPopFestival.com
Hand and wreath logo copyright Atlantic Pop Festival Posters LLC
Hippies and Flower Children of all ages, and all those who support the Texas Music Community.
The Original Artist Line-up of the
Texas International Pop Festival of 1969:
B.B.King, Canned Heat, Chicago, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends,
Freddie King, Grand Funk Railroad, Herbie Mann,
Incredible String Band, James Cotton Blues Band, Janis Joplin,
Johnny Winter, Led Zeppelin, Nazz, The Quarry, Rotary Connection,
Sam & Dave, Santana, Shiva's Headband, Sly & the Family Stone,
Space Opera, Spirit, Sweetwater, Ten Years After and Tony Joe White
Hang out on the grass in the TMM's Big Backyard on blankets in the shade of the big pecan trees that canopy the museum grounds. It's gonna be the Best Little Woodstock in Texas!