A quick lesson in music history to kick off the start of festival season. We're taking a look at where these popular gatherings of music, art and culture began in Part I of this two Part series.

1. The History of Music Festivals: Part 1

2. Coachella. Bonnaroo. Lollapalooza.
While these are the hottest music festivals today, you may not
know that music festivals have been around for over 60 years
dating back to the days of Woodstock.
Whether you want to organize a stellar music festival, or simply
love being a participant, we’re going to take you on a journey to
explore where these gatherings of music, art and culture began.

3. Newport Jazz Festival
The first music festival took place in 1954 in Newport,
Rhode Island. The Newport Jazz Festival had a crowd of
over 11,000 jazz lovers in attendance. Aside from jazz
musicians and aficionados, the festival was also host to
academic panels to catch the attention of professional’s and
student’s.
The Festival relocated to New York for a short five-year stint
in the 70s, and since then has moved back to Rhode Island
and continues to take place year after year. Jazz legends
like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis and Louis
Armstrong have all performed at the Newport Jazz Festival
over the years.

4. Monterey's International Pop Festival
By the late 60s the festival scene had migrated west to
California, with the Monterey’s International Pop Festival.
Not only was it the first major rock festival of its kind, it was
also an event planning miracle, the entire three-day festival
was put together in only six weeks.
It featured music from several genres and musical time
periods. Run by a board of governors that included Mick
Jagger and Paul McCartney, they resolved that all the artists
playing would receive the same a-list treatment, regardless
of their current level of success.

5. Woodstock
August 15th 1969, arguably the grooviest day in all of music
history, or more commonly known as Woodstock, the most
memorable music festival in American history.
Invigorated by the age of free love, Woodstock, an epic
three (turned four) day festival featuring 32 different musical
acts took place on a dairy farm in Bethel New York. Artists
included Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, The
Who and of course the guitar-lighting Jimi Hendrix.

6. Woodstock is remembered for its outstanding success and
incredible music, but it was actually a logistical nightmare.
The event organizers were only expecting to host around
50,000 people, but that number changed when they sold
quadruple that amount in tickets.
If you think that’s bad, the actual number of people who
attended ballooned up to 500,000, forcing those who
planned the festival to open up the fences and basically
accept that it had grown out of their control and become a
free concert. Regardless, it will forever go down as a pivotal
movement in music history.

7. Isle of Wight Festival
Though its debut was actually the year before the
outrageous success of Woodstock, it’s landmark year didn’t
come until 1970. By then, the Isle of Wight was hosting
artists like Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, The Who, The Doors
and Bob Dylan.
A gathering the size of the Isle of Wight Festival was
seemingly unprecedented in England, and after the
festival’s breakthrough year, Parliament was forced to put
up some red tape. From then on, gatherings of over 5,000
people would require a permit.

8. More awesome info on the history of the music festival coming up
soon! Stay tuned for part two.