That stoners’ anthem brought them to the world’s attention and
they subsequently headlined just about every festival worth knowing
across the USA at the time. Besides the line-ups and a degree of corporate
infiltration, little has changed in the festival world. As each summer arrives
— in all its sweaty, sun-baked, road-trip glory — music fans from across the
spectrum take to the road (or the skies) to revel in the borderline hedonism
in which their parents or even grandparents indulged in decades past.
While the 1960s are imagined as the big folk-rock festival’s heyday,
there are more music festivals of all stripes now dotting the American
landscape than ever before. From Telluride to Ultra to Summerfest, from
country to electronic to classical, there are dozens of well-known events
(along with a few more obscure — Camp Bisco? Salmonfest? Soupstock?).
Some are long-running festivals that have managed to maintain their DIY
ethics while others are newcomer corporate-sponsored see-and-be-seen
mega-events.