This 1968 Pop Festival Was Cut Short a Day, but at Least It Gave Us This Classic Track From Jimi Hendrix

Outdoor live music events are almost always governed by Murphy’s Law. And the festival colloquially known as the Miami Pop Festival was certainly no exception. These kinds of events have a myriad of logistical tightropes to navigate in order for them to be successful. The performers, vendors, organizers, and attendees all have to be in sync. To quote Top Gun: Maverick, “That’s miracle number one.” The second miracle is having the weather cooperate. “That’s miracle number two.” Unfortunately, the latter didn’t happen.

Richard O’Barry and Michael Lang hosted their two-day festival in Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Florida, just north of Miami. Some refer to this event as the Miami Pop Festival. But organizers technically billed the live music event as the 1968 Pop Festival and the 1968 Pop and Underground Festival. Another event that actually was called the Miami Pop Festival took place later that year in December, also in Gulfstream Park.

Based on both the colloquial and official names for the festival and the lineup of performers, O’Barry and Lang’s event was clearly an East Coast response to the Monterey International Pop Festival held the previous year. But things didn’t go quite according to plan.

The 1968 Pop Festival Was Rained Out, but Not All Was Lost

Performers for the 1968 Pop Festival included The Mothers of Invention, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, Blues Image, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was an absolutely stacked lineup set to take place over a Saturday and Sunday in mid-May. However, torrential downpours plagued the event to the point that Richard O’Barry and Michael Lang had to call off the second day. It was undoubtedly a disappointing turn of events for both the festival crew and ticket buyers. But not all was lost.

According to Hendrix’s bassist, Noel Redding, the experience was “excellent,” per Michael Lang’s The Road To Woodstock. “When the second day’s show was rained out, Jimi and I headed to the hotel for a jam and general craziness with Arthur Brown, [club owner and artist manager] Steve Paul, the Mothers of Invention, and Blue Cheer.”

Hendrix’s engineer, Eddie Kramer, recalled the iconic guitarist writing “Rainy Day, Dream Away”, which would appear on the Experience’s third and final album, Electric Ladyland, while dealing with the Floridian downpour. “I’ll never forget,” Kramer said. “It was in the back of a car. We were pulling away from Gulfstream Park. It was a torrential rainstorm, and then he started to write it right there.”

There was a silver lining for the organizers, too. Although the 1968 Pop Festival couldn’t enjoy the second day of live music and general merriment, organizing a festival of that size—with roughly 25,000 attendees—was great practice for Michael Lang, who would go on to promote Woodstock the next year.

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