50 years ago Hendrix, the Allman Brothers and B.B. King played the Byron Pop Festival

The Byron Pop Festival, technically known as the Second Atlanta International Pop Festival, started 50 years ago with an estimated 50,000 people on the first day of July 3, 1970.

The crowd grew to an estimated 200,000-500,000 people over the course of the three day festival at Middle Georgia Raceway, and nudity, drugs and around 40 hours of rock music descended on the small town of Byron for the celebration.

The Allman Brothers Band performed twice: once on Friday and again on Sunday. Jimi Hendrix headlined the concert on Saturday, and musicians, including B. B. King, Bob Seger and Grand Funk Railroad, performed at the festival, according to Telegraph archives.

Although the festival is not as well-known as the 1969 Woodstock Festival, it was the largest American crowd Hendrix ever played in front of, and is also known as the Woodstock of the South, according to Telegraph archives.

Some Middle Georgia hotels and motels were completely booked for the weekend weeks before the festival, but the festival provided free camping with showers. However, the showers weren’t necessarily private and there was no air conditioning in the 100 degree July heat.

One of the reasons the festival became so large was the crowd crashed through the gate on the first day of the festival around 10 p.m. shouting, “Free, free, free.” The sponsors decided to ask for $1 donations to pay for the water provided by the festival after they were unable to force people to pay $18 admission, according to archives.

An attendee of the festival described it as “one gigantic picnic without any parents along,” according to Telegraph archives.

The citizens of Byron reportedly had mixed feelings about the festival. Some believed it was the worst thing to happen to the small town while others thought the “long hairs,” a term used throughout articles about the festival, were friendly.

“I think it is the most disgraceful thing I have ever seen. I went with my husband out there last night, and he said if the Lord let him get out he would never go back. Boys and girls were walking around bare,” said the wife of Grady Bassett Sr. in a July 4, 1970 article in The Macon Telegraph. “Byron is too small a town to take care of such as that.”

Esther Pinfold said in the same article that she spoke to several of the “longhaired visitors” and thought they were “just wonderful folks.”

One of the largest concerns from onlookers was nudity, based on reports from the time

Festival goers liked to cool off in the Echeconnee Creek, and although most people were reportedly clothed, some decided to take a dip nude.

“We have a state law that prohibits indecent exposure,” then Bibb County Sheriff Jimmy E. Bloodworth said in a July 4, 1970 article. “But, how are you going to lock up hundreds of people? I’m running a crowded jail now.”

Because it was nearly impossible to arrest people for drug violations in the crowd, the police reportedly worked with the crowd to ensure people’s safety and to get people to the aid tents when they were having bad trips.

To commemorate the event, a historical marker was installed near the Middle Georgia Raceway to commemorate one of the largest public gatherings Georgia had ever seen, and a documentary film was produced by Alex Cooley and directed by Steve Rash with a working title of “Hotlanta, The Great Lost Rock Festival.” Rash also created a documentary about Jimi Hendrix that featured footage from the Byron Pop Festival.

This story was originally published July 3, 2020 at 12:49 PM.