Was Bull Island The Worst Music Festival of All Time? 

I can see the headline now "90 year old man found alive on Bull Island, still thinks Rod Stewart is going to show up"

I remember at Woodstock 99 some guy was running screaming "get out it's going to be a bull Island all over again" none of us really knew what he was talking about

In college in mid-80s , the grad assistant in the Film & TV school told us of his experience at Bull Island. He went with a Super 8 movie camera and 20+ hrs of film in order to create an amateur documentary about Where Young People Were At. Alas, his camera and film were stolen.

I’m convinced that 80% of the litter in America today is just from music festivals in the 60s-70s

I bet turd fields has the greenest grass on bull island.

For that tow-truck driver, who had always hated hippies, it was the best weekend of his life.

I was 14 years old. Of course my folks would not allow me to attend. However once I found out I could make money working for a respected catering company, including a ride there and home with my BFF, they agreed. I still remember that long ride. Traffic was pretty much standing still with freaks, aka hippies parking everywhere and walking in the middle of the road. It took an entire day to get to the area that the catering company had set up. The lady in charge of our group kept telling us to stay together and rub dirt on our faces so we’d fit in. It was exciting chaos. Ultimately we were told that we’d have to head back home because the freaks had overtaken the catering truck and were giving out the hamburgers. I never saw any bands. But crazy enough I did see my boyfriend along side the road. (Married him the following summer). It will be 50 years for us in 2023!

I went for one day. I was 21. Road up on my motorcycle. Nobody bothered it. It was pretty much as described. Saw an old man I knew and he was walking down the dirt road drinking whiskey out of a big bottle. Staggering was more like it. When he saw me he screamed “look at this bunch of freaks”. I thought then that he was the freakiest thing I had ever seen.

Even though they were largely unknown at the time, imagine leaving early and missing The Doobie Brothers and The Eagles

Damn. Only two people dead? That's crazy considering all this chaos.

I was there with 5 high school buddies. None of us bought poison laced drugs and we hauled a cooler full of pop and sandwiches. We did leave early Monday morning after the night of fires where the food trailers were burned down. Many groupd we came to see of course never appeared, but we had a blast. I have very fond memories of the festival and the trip there and back with my friends.

I hitch-hiked there from Tulsa Oklahoma with a girl/friend from high school. We were both 16. Hey Dalene? You out there? lol Anyway, there was a sort of ticket taking booth at the entrance but we happened to arrive just as the fence on both sides of it was pushed down and all of us ticketless people started pouring in. Near the entrance to the left was a dirt road lined with VW busses and other vans, each with a table in front and some sort of makeshift sign advertising what types of drugs they had for sale. To the right of the entrance was a spot in the river where thousands of people were swimming naked. We continued on up toward the crowd and sat about 100 yards from the stage; close by comparison to most others who arrived later. No food at all for three days, very little water, but plenty of every kind of drug imaginable being passed around. The lack of food and water was probably a good thing, since the crowd was way too big to get out of to pee or poo since it would take 20 or 30 minutes just to get to the tree line. The video said people went into the woods but they really just dug a hole right where they were sitting, went, and filled the hole back in. Some people were walking around naked, more men than women, and if the mood struck a couple (or any two people who had just met) to have sex they would just lay down right there in the middle of the crowd and do it. I remember some of the music but for the most part, this was one of those "If you remember it you weren't there" kinds of things. I do remember showing up at home, just after dawn. My Dad was working on some project in the driveway. He was used to me disappearing for a few days and didn't bother asking me for explanations anymore. He just said "You look tired" to which I replied yes I was (four days of no sleep, no food, and lots of drugs will do that to you). Would I do it again? Hell no, but I'm glad I did.

Went to Bull Island with girl I was seeing at that time and it was about my worst musical experience ever. We were probably 2 of the few fools who paid, tickets were just $20. Went to see groups like the Allman Brothers, Amboy Dukes, Small Faces, Bob Segar, Albert King, Fleetwood Mac, Chambers Bros, the remaining Doors, John Mayall etc. and instead saw Vince Vance and the Valiants and Flash Cadillac and the Continentals Kids. Wanted to see Black Sabbath but got Black Oak Arkansas instead (who most people really liked). We did at least get to see Albert King, Rory Gallagher, Canned Heat, Cheech and Chong and Ravi Shankar. Funny thing Ravi was first introduced as "Rabbi Shankar" before being heckled to get it right. The deal was so freakin' disorganized and the drugs available and for dirt cheap was like nothing I have ever seen before or since. Like a cheap open air flea market with every kind of drug in MASSIVE quantities that you can imagine. What was kind of foggingly clear to me was how few were there for the music and how many were there to see how fucked up they could get on downers like barbituates, heroin, sopers etc. Lots of good people but an all around bad scene, bad acid and we got the hell outa there after 2 days. Just check out any of the big crowd pix --- very few smiles. Not many having fun the longer it went on, vibe was bad news.

Imagine when not being able to see Rod Stewart is an existenial crisis.

People that went to Woodstock from Maryland said it was awful. Anything that could go wrong did. Only after the movie and album did it all of a sudden become amazing. Like a artist that gains fame posthumously.

So, government trying to keep people “safe” by disallowing a festival that tried to comply with the law ended up putting people in danger by giving them no option but to host on an unpoliced island. Yep sounds about right.

Woodstock organizers: whew, we really did that by the seat of our pants, that got messy Bull Island organizers: hold our Boone's

Took about 7 hours for Fyre festival to degenerate into a free for all. These guys held up quite well.

I metal detected a little portion of the site and found a bunch of cool stuff. Belt buckles (I guess pants were up and down) stainless syringes, pocket knives, coke spoons, a machete, a few nice pipes. Its like a 70s time capsule. I would love to do that at woodstock.

I was at the Bull Island festival. I hitched there from Chicago with two buddies. The conditions were terrible, but I was eighteen and had a great time. None of the big names played, but the bands that did play became big shortly after. They had Nazareth, Foghat, the Eagles, the Doobie Brothers, Rory Gallagher, Black Oak Arkansas, Amboy Dukes with Ted Nugent, and a group called Ramtan or something like that. They had a female guitarist who was great and the drummer was Mitch Mitchell from Hendrix. I stayed until Tuesday because it was easier to leave then. I also snuck in.

There was so much Boones Farm Wine because it was hauled in and sold by Hell's Angels on a school bus and you could not pass without buying one, $2.00.

There are all sorts of these forgotten festivals throughout the 70s that were just disasters. Almost every state has at least one story. They're some of the darker moments in rock history.

There was a 'festival' one year in my home county put on by some rich kids and a group of bikers . Somehow these dudes got Lonnie Mack , Bootsy and Catfish Collins and their band , and lots of other local kids and pick up bands to play at this party in the sticks a few miles from Cincinnati. Secret , yet word of mouth advertised like any rural party. It was an epic , acid and black molly fueled bash for one long saturday in 1979 . It went down as the mother of all field parties.

“Turd fields”may be the funniest shit ever!

My Dad was there. Evansville and the surrounding communities are notorious for cancelling anything that the youth are into, especially controversial music acts.

Standing 46000th in queue to the toilet... “man I hope the dude in front of me doesn’t skid the bowl”.

I was there and this is the first report about it I have ever seen, 51 years later. I hitchhiked from the Chicago area. Didn't want to take a car because I was afraid I'd never get it out. My girlfriend and I had only a double sleeping bag and that was okay until it rained. We spent the night trying to sleep in a downpour. Other than that, we were hungry but had a pretty good time. I only remember Ravi Shankar and Cheech & Chong. I never heard anything about it being such a disaster until now.

This aged like fine wine.

That would've been one hell of a lineup had all those bands not canceled.

Someone in Hollywood needs to turn this shitshow into a feature length movie.

I was there in ‘72! It was a pretty intense long weekend. I remember thinking if something serious happens, there’s no way out. Later, someone behind me (accidentally) caught my hair on fire. 🔥 It was pretty terrifying!

It doesn't matter where in America, where in the world this happened - it could happen anywhere, but it's the mirror image of an ultra-libertarian society, where everything fails for lack of authority, hierarchy, structure, organization. I found this very educational, thank you.

Damn imagine tripping and seeing the environment slowly waste away.

One toilet for an entire sold out crowd at Wrigley Field. Sounds about right

Nice attention to detail in this documentary, like getting the period-correct photo for the Doors for 1972 (12:45.) I believe this is the same photo they used for the Other Voices album.

GREAT video...totally new to the story of this festival and loved it immensely. i almost wish i had been there!

That is the first time EVAR I've ever seen Boone's Farm drunk from a glass and not just pulled straight from the bottle.

"Ehh... it was ok." is quite possibly the highest compliment that anyone has ever given to Boone's Farm.

There was a riot at Erie, PA with Head East and Atlanta Rhythm Section show that got rained out. The electronics used to mix sound and lights in the audience was burned.

Needless to say my memories of this show were crazy … my band BANG were the last band to play before all hell broke loose … besides all the headliners bailing on the show … the bands that did play never got paid … we ended up being stranded with no money to get to the next show … we were stuck … unable to get help from our manager the Doobie Brothers took it upon themselves to give us money to make it to our next gig … THANK YOU …

Yeah, I too was there aged 19. Drove from west central Ohio and "parked" my car along the highway. It, however was not towed. Frankly, I really don't remember much. Didn't pay to get in and had brought along a fair amount of weed and acid. Spent most of my time scrounging, trippin' and trading. Slept under a semi trailer. I had no idea that the bands that bailed were even slated to be there. The Boone's farm was what we drank.

That was fascinating. I'd never heard of that shit-show until now.

Excellent video, really interesting discovery. I'd love a bad trip horror movie about that very event.

Your reporting is spot on!! Love this channel ❤

I'm 67, living in Iowa. I was at this Festival! What a trip to find this documentary. I spent the Festival 'up'. I built a 'compound' for our community...fire pit, fence, gate with an arch. I remember it fondly. Thanks.

The irony is that had the county simply allowed the event to take place as originally planned, none of the carnage would have taken place.

Great work. Never heard of this one before, but you created a detailed account of what went on...glad there wasn't any footage of turd fields!

Boone’s Farm is what we bought from the convenience store when we wanted to get drunk in college. It’s also a favorite of bridge-dwellers.

I was there. I remember Albert King singing Kansas City a few times to fill the gap due to the no-show performers. Bi-polar is the best way I could describe the overall atmosphere of Bulls Island. Also, you didn't have to sneak in, the swarm of concert goers pretty much walked unabated past the people selling tickets.

Fun fact: my dad was conceived on this festival

Dude, that line up!! The line up poster for both festivals are insane!

Thank you - just forwarded to my son and his friends who just attended a sh*t show of a 3 day music festival in Byron Bay, NSW, Australia. I hope it helps them put things into perspective and speeds up getting over what they went through 😥

I was 14 and lived 150 miles from this festival. I remember news coverage of it, but do not recall hearing about its catastrophic results. The angle of the news was that due to lack access from Illinois, police would be absent, therefore it was a drug supermarket. This really fills in my understanding of the event. Thanks for a great vid.

The so-called "Celebration of Life Festival" in McCrea, Louisianna was even more disastrous... Not only was there the usual bad planning, and lack of facilities and supplies, but some attendees got beaten by both bikers and cops, and a number of attendees drowned in the swift moving river that ran next to the site, when they tried to find relief from the awful heat. Needless to say, many of the big name acts cancelled, including Pink Floyd...buy a number of good bands did play, including Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes, Ike & Tina Turner, and Delaney and Bonnie

That's quite amazing. I'd have considered myself a fairly knowledgeable music fan.... I've been collecting bootleg concerts since the 70's and have over 4k shows, plus a very large library of books, documentaries etc and the entire Bull Island festival has slipped from my memory bank assuming it was ever there to begin with. I'll have to go back over some of my festival related docos/books and see if I can find a mention of it anywhere. Thanks for a very interesting video.

It’s weird being from the Evansville and Warrick County area and not knowing anything about this music festival until now

The promoters should have been held responsible for cleaning the site , it’s pretty disgusting that they just buried everything

That’s nothing... you should have been to my 8th birthday 🥳

Damn even a festival as chaotic as this has less casualties than Astroworld

How tf have I never heard about Bull Island before?! Thanks for a great video!

Given the number of people, the environment they were in, lack of planning and resources, it's really pretty remarkable there were so few deaths. This really could have been so much worse than it was. Although, I have to say, when it was said that the site was just bulldozed I am inclined to consider how many bodies might have been buried. Makes me wonder how many people disappeared over that weekend and no one has any idea they're buried there. When you think about the attitudes of the time you **damn well know** they didn't actually check.

"a defeated army" shows all happy smiling waving kids

This was recommended to me out of nowhere this week. Probably because I was watching the Wacken 2023 Livestream last weekend which suffered heavy rain and mud, being an outdoor metal festival. Luckily I can report that, despite massive set backs and having to close admission on the first day, the festival this was nevertheless was a success. So much so that on the final fay Wacken had made a short montage video thanking fans, the crew, the organizers and the bands for their participation and hard work and dedication to metal. I have no idea what compelled me to write this comment. Maybe I just needed to balance out the bad with the good if for nobody else but myself. 🤘

What was up with the whole "I'm gonna leave my car in the middle of the road and walk" thing during the 60s and 70s. Were cars that cheap? Did the kids who did it think they would get their cars back? I could never imagine just leaving my car in the middle of the street

Sure the concert didn't go off as planned. And as stated, there were obstacles. Maybe I'm a glass half full guy because I got by okay and jammed to some really good tunes. For me it was an adventure of sorts too. And yeah, I drank a fair amount of Boones Farm. All the bad acid was as big a draw back as anything IMO. What a shame. Nazareth was flat out smoking hot. At 18 my, experience may have been different than others. When I finally got home, I don't think I would have gone again knowing the outcome, but there were several reasons for that. I never had seen such drug availability and drug use as I did for three days on that island, and haven't since. If 275,000 of us were on that island then, I wonder how many are left now. I'm closing with one of my favorite memories. I'm almost sure it was Sunday night shortly after dark, the guy that was continually walking on the stage and warning of bad dope, came out and said that there was a film crew there from CBS News. He asked everybody with a lighter to light it and hold it in the air. I was right in front of bandstand to the left and turned around to see how many people would have a lighter in the air. From that vantage point looking back and sort of up hill at the whole crowd, it was then that I realized how many of us there really were. I wish I had a pic of that. The CBS story was just that, a story. After 49 years, those of you left, I wish a good life.

I don't even want to imagine the devastation and the smell. A friend of mine once took part in organising a small festival on a race track near my town and his peers had, to say the least, idealistic visions about it. It wasn't a total disaster, but he swore never again.

Enjoyed the 18 minute documentary great job. Never heard of this festival probably because so many bands didn't play.

This channel is going to blow up very fast. There's no way it couldn't.

My mom and dad went to this! They had a great time. Both sides of the freeway got gridlocked going the same way lol. One guy was bashing his head into a car windshield cuz he'd snorted bleach(only bad story). Cheech and Chong woke everyone up at 6:00 am saying "get up mfers! It's time to party!".

I went to this Festival. I was just turning 15 that summer. Had a pretty good time. We were pretty close to one of the tractor-trailers that got torched. I thought that was rather grim. The summer of '74 Sedalia Mo festival was a similar 'cook-out' with sweltering temps.

_"The promoters had promised four hundred outdoor privies. One medical volunteer said there were no more than six."_ That anecdote alone would enough to convince me that Bull Island was unironically haunted. That amount of human suffering and defilement surely left an imprint... x3

9:49 "the crowd enjoyed some more wild wha-?" ohh SETS... probably the other thing too though, right?

I graduated in 1972 from Shelbyville IN. The draft was still on and I wasn't sure where I was heading. A buddy and I heard about the festival and headed down in my car. We never made it. About 4 miles or so from the area you couldn't drive any further so we parked along the side of the road. We had brought some hotdogs, a couple cases of beer and an ounce of pot. So while we were deciding how to haul all our crap the remaining walk, we hooked up with some chicks. The rest, as they say, was history. I KNOW I had a good time.

I can’t believe I never heard of this. Thanks!

The eugh from tasting the boones farm really tied the whole video together

You should do a similar video on the Love-and-Peace-Festival 1970 in Fehmarn, Germany. It was a complete disaster and by the way the infamous last concert of Jimi Hendrix. There was everything involved to get a nasty festival experience: Hells-Angels-like rockers as staff members, rainy weather, headliners falling out. The result: A angry crowd boing Jimi Hendrix, promoters escaping overnight with all the money and the organizer's center going up in flames.

In the late 80s, I worked with a guy who went to this, the only other time I ever heard about it. Thanks for posting this video with the story about it. I remembered his stories and they all make more sense after all these years. In fact, his stories are THE reason I never went to a music festival

First time to your channel, I like it so far. Sounds like Josh Gates narrating the story?

Omg I'm from Evansville Indiana & I've never heard of this but I wasn't even alive yet but I'm shook WTF?!!!! I recognize so much of this!!! How did I not hear of this?!!! Awwww I grew up with Bob & Tom!!!!

One of the funniest things I remember was going to a rock concert featuring the Cult and Metallica at their height in the 90's. It was in Brno, Czech Republic and the whole city was suddenly invaded by stringy haired leather jacket guys carrying beer. The ones who couldn't afford to go inside the stadium climbed up into balconies of nearby apartment buildings, while housewives in curlers and hair nets swatted at them with brooms! Several bands including the previous mentioned and Faith No More for TWELVE bucks!.

There's a time and place for seeing Gentle Giant, and I can't imagine this was it.

This video is so well done 🏆 Ty

Fantastic video, cheers man!

Came for The Faces. Stayed for the open sewer and social collapse.

Oh dang dang, thanks for using one of our tunes again!! Great video as always!! #bandsplaining

When the crowd and venue are so classless every big act decides to cancel you've got one real shitshow on your hands.

That festival shows very well what hippies were indeed. They used to talk about saving the environment but would litter the whole island and burn so many things (causing more air pollution) just because they realized that their fantasy world wasn’t true

That's a wild ride! Anyone with a shovel and backbone could dig a few outhouses, though.

Crazy how ive never even heard of this festival! Love this channel

I'm currently working on a project involving this topic, may I ask where you were able to secure your B roll of the festival? It would help me greatly.

You got a cool style bro, nice vid!

I went to this festival and actually had a decent time. I took some strange pills from some weird dude on day 1. I woke up Tuesday morning and went home.

Gives new meaning to the term “shit-fest”.

I like how it devolved into the third circle of Dante's Inferno. Although maybe not 'like', that seems atrocious. Edit: Actually, I think it descended down SEVERAL circles of Hell before their eyes.

I’ll never understand what attracts humans to these outdoor music festivals. It’s the thrill of surviving a near death experience only to wake up and realize it was just a dream. Now your riding a unicycle naked through a crowd at Burning Man.

Turd Fields must have been glorious. Everyone leaving has doo doo pollon up to their knees.

I had never heard of this music festival until now. I'm surprised that things didn't turn out worse!

Excellent documentary!

Wow you nicely I put this together . You should be proud of you .

i really like that you're doing topics that aren't already well documented.