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OrangeTV: I’m slowly piecing together an article about a big Rock Music
Festival that brought 
15,000 naked, stoned hippies and innocent
bystanders together in Farragut Park on July 2-5, 1971. It was billed
as the “Universal Life Church Picnic” but was, by all reports,
incredibly wild and resulted in drug busts and much heavy-duty
moralizing by the governor and others at the time. Seems to have really
shaken up sleepy old North Idaho at the time. Anyway, more importantly I’m gathering memories from anyone willing
to share them if you can recall this festival at all. I’m especially
curious to know what bands played - in the Press, they speculated Grand
Funk Railroad and Iron Butterfly, but that seems a bit lofty. I have a
hunch it was mainly local “talent.” More here.
DFO: OrangeTV needs your help, if you remember anything about the 1971 Rock Music Festival at Farragut State Park. (BTW, OTV, the Gary Ingram you mention later in your comment is the same one who hangs out at HBO. He’s a former state legislator.
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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JamesBond on March 14 at 11:49 a.m.
I was very little, but my dad took my mom and I to it. I seem to remember it being very hot, and I know my mom and I spent some time in a wooded area with our cat. I know that my mom would not let me go down where my dad was, because of the nudity and drugs. I can remember being up in this little area with trees and looking down and seeing lots of hippies. At the time, it was a normal look for teenagers and young adults.
florined on March 14 at 12:50 p.m.
Sorry, OTV…I wasn’t there. That was another of those summers spent on my mountain top sans newspapers, commercial radio, etc. I vaguely remember the people staffing Bernard Lookout, above the park, commenting occasionally about visitors during the event, but there wasn’t much they could say over the FS frequency. You might check with folks at the Sandpoint ranger station, though. Some of the people working on the forest then are still in town, I think.
bondgirl on March 14 at 4:52 p.m.
How about the 2 rock festivals at Stateline Speedway, the last when they burned most of it down? They also occured in the early 70’s. The failure was due to a major band (Blue Oyster Cult) becoming a no-show. Had about all the cops in the PNW around the facility. The first one, was more calm, might be worth asking some folks that were there what they remember.
hhuseland on March 14 at 7:33 p.m.
For some reason, and I was in Coeur d’Alene then, at age 33, I don’t remember it. Probably for two reasons. One, I was living in downtown cda at 15th and Lakeside at the time. I was much more conservative back then and the news of a hippie convention probably wouldn’t have stirred my interest.
Two, there were so many hangouts back then between me and Farragut. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I ever saw Farragut until around 1993. I would bounce from The Cave, also known as Sourdough Lil’s and the Cotton Club in Hayden., or in Spanish, Algodones. There was only so much of me and so many places and people to do. Ah, the days of youth..I do remember one thing about the cotton club. If you left the club on a Friday or Saturday night alone, it was because you wanted to, not because you had to. biggest meat market in North Idaho at it’s peak.
Howard_Martinson on March 14 at 10:22 p.m.
Patrick:
Yes, I was at Farragut for a few hours during the event. I don’t remember a great deal about it, no I wasn’t stoned. More of a curious innocent bystander. There was music, folks smoking dope, a few topless girls. It was a very hot, sunny, dusty day. Carl Maxey had the microphone for a while. It seems like Carl was running for office - maybe Congress or The Senate.
I worked at Inland Empire Paper Company the summer of ‘71. I was at Priest Lake and driving in to work the night shift when I made a detour to Farragut for the concert.
GaryIngram on March 15 at 11:31 a.m.
OTV, yes I was there. Not much recollection though about what rock bands were playing. I was not one of them but went out of curiosity. There was a study by a citizen fact finding group who published a booklet entitled THE FARRAGUT REPORT. It chronicles very carefully the 3 day event with lots of documentation and footnotes on press reports. Could save you a lot of research. Don’t recall if much was said about what bands were playing. Should be at the library.