On This Day in 1972, This Midwest River Islet Hosted “The Worst Music Festival of All Time”

We often associate significant musical events with cultural centers on the East and West Coasts, but on September 2, 1972, the Midwest threw its hat into the ring when a tiny islet in the Ohio River hosted what some would later call the “worst music festival of all time.”

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Is it the greatest claim to fame? Certainly not. But it’s likely the only reason why anyone outside of southern Indiana and Illinois knows about this tiny strip of land in the Wabash River.

The Midwest River Islet Turned Into a Chaotic Mud Pit

Tom Duncan and Bob Alexander got the “too much of a good thing” lesson of a lifetime after organizing the Erie Canal “Soda” Pop Festival in the summer of 1972. The event followed a successful event in Evansville, Indiana, which inspired the two promoters to create an even bigger festival elsewhere in the state. And indeed, their lineup was promising, featuring bands like Black Sabbath, The Doors, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, and Joe Cocker.

After they failed to receive governmental permission in Indiana, Duncan and Alexander opted for an islet in the Wabash River known as Bull Island. Access to Bull Island was in Indiana, but it was legally part of Illinois. Duncan and Alexander estimated the turnout to be around 55,000 people, but when the time came for the festival to begin in early September, over 200,000 arrived on the tiny rural islet.

“It was like an invasion,” Ed Lunkenheimer, who was working as an Indiana state police trooper at the time, recalled to Classic Rock. “They were bound for Bull Island, come hell or high water. We’d never seen that mass of humanity. Ever.” Cars backed up traffic for miles, a lack of law enforcement led to rampant, open-air drug use, and bands quickly began dropping off the bill when they realized how ill-prepared, -staffed, and -funded the festival was.

With significantly fewer bands on the bill, lots of downtime, even more drugs, and not enough food, water, or other infrastructure to support the massive festival, chaos quickly (and unsurprisingly) ensued.

The Worst Festival of All Time

With each passing day, the Erie Canal “Soda” Pop Festival became more chaotic, destructive, and messy. Rainfall drenched the already swampy riverland, turning the islet into a gargantuan mud pit. Attendees began robbing and looting vendors, burning facilities, and even killing local livestock for food, despite having no means of processing the meat into something edible. One person died of a h***** overdose. Another drowned in the river.

In the end, what Tom Duncan and Bob Alexander hoped would be the next Woodstock turned into a catastrophe that the press would later dub the “worst music festival of all time.” The promoters lost upwards of $200,000 on their Midwest river islet music festival. Bull Island landowners, vendors, the IRS, and the states of Indiana and Illinois all sued the promoters, leading to a lengthy nine-year legal battle.

Duncan would later claim rock festivals weren’t “morally right” and retire from the promotion business.

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