Phil Lesh, Jack Johnson, Norah Jones Lead Monterey Pop 50 Festival
Fifty years after the legendary Monterey International Pop Festival laid the groundwork for music festivals, the fest will return to California’s Monterey County Fairgrounds this June.
The Monterey Pop 50 festival – which runs June 16th to 18th, exactly 50 years after the original fest’s dates – will feature Jack Johnson, Norah Jones, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Phil Lesh, who performed at the 1967 Monterey Pop with the Grateful Dead, among those who will play the fest.
Other artists lined up to play at the 50th anniversary celebration include Kurt Vile & the Violators, Father John Misty, Gary Clark Jr., the Head and the Heart, Langhorne Slim, Regina Spektor, Leon Bridges, Sara Watkins, North Mississippi Allstars, Jacob Banks and Eric Burdon & the Animals. The festival’s full lineup will be revealed at the Monterey Pop 50’s site.
San Francisco-area promoter Another Planet Entertainment teamed with Coachella organizers Goldenvoice to revive Monterey Pop on its half-century anniversary, with organizers intent on recreating the feel of the original festival as opposed to its modern counterparts.
In an interview with the New York Times, Another Planet’s Gregg Perloff said, “How do you put on a show that has the good aspects of 2017 with some of the sweetness and innocence of 1967? We’re going to have a great sound system, but we don’t want to have huge video screens and special effects and lasers.”
The original Monterey Pop festival – orchestrated by producer Lou Adler and the Mamas and the Papas’ John Phillips – featured legendary sets courtesy of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin and Big Brother Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, the Who, the Grateful Dead and more. The three-day festival, one of the first of its kind and the inspiration for mega fests like Woodstock, was the focus of an acclaimed documentary filmed by D.A. Pennebaker. Adler is also consulting on the 50th anniversary festival.