Texas International Pop Festival

Middle Sea Studios
__________
Richard C. Hayner

Poster design by Lance Bragg

Yes, after over thirty years, it's time for us to put it between covers. A book is now in the works about the event that shook Texas. So, you ask, what's this book going to be like? Sure, we want to make it a way for fans to reminisce, but that’s only a small part of what is waiting to be said. Much of it needs to be said to the youth of today and tomorrow. It may be that something like the pop festivals of the sixties couldn't be done today, but that doesn't mean it can never be that way again. It is within us and within our grasp to cherish one another and the good things humankind has found to do while on this great planet.

We also want to show the hippie movement for what it really was. I know too many people who, when you mention hippies or pop festivals, all they can do is make comments about people getting stoned out of their minds. They need to know what we did, how we felt, what brought us together. The basic premise of the movement needs to be heard now more than ever. The robotic materialism and capitalistic fervor of today makes the sixties look like the Age of Innocence. (It was actually the Age of Incense!)

However, the festival was a festival of music, and that’s where the heart of our book must beat. The rock, jazz and R&B that was heard in the heat of a Texas Labor Day weekend in 1969 was some of the best that year had to offer. The soulful serenades of Sam and Dave, the jazz melodies of Herbie Mann and the blues riffs of B.B.’s Lucille meshed perfectly with rock legends like Led Zeppelin and Chicago. And Janis, bless her heart, was actually nervous about playing for a Texas crowd again. The sixties experienced a renaissance of music that has yet to be matched, and this was the decade’s finale.

Some of us knew Dallas would never be the same as the shade of Lee Park, a major hippie hang-out was abandoned for the sun-drenched fields of the Dallas International Motor Speedway. The Turtle Creek Turtle (a cartoon icon for the Dallas hippie scene) could bask in private as the hippie masses were drawn by the idea of togetherness with thousands of their own kind.

If the music was the heart of the festival, the people were the soul. The majority of the text in the book will be the actual words of the people who were there. The story of the Texas International Pop Festival must be told by those who made it what it was, the loving people who took part. That's why we're looking for anyone who was there. We don't just want clever anecdotes. If you were there, we want to hear from you. Don't worry that you don't remember much or that you don't have cool stories. You'll be able to add to our story, believe it or not.

Let this book be a monument to what human beings can do when they have a positive goal, of art, of peace, of mass companionship, of kindred souls with a common bond of love and of freedom. Let us carve a notch in the tree of time and make history know us as we were on that summer’s day in Lewisville, Texas and all over the nation, a nation of our own.

Would you like to be notified when the book is ready for sale? Just click here. Mail Request Form

Were you there? Do you have photographs from the festival that we could scan for use in the book? Maybe you have a poster, a ticket or some other sort of memorabilia we could photograph. Or maybe you have a story, some really freaky thing that happened to you or some great memory of the festival you'd like to share with the world. Maybe you were there, but you don't think you've got anything of value to share. You'd be surprised! Let us know. (You retain possession of any photos or memorabilia.) Email me: richard@texaspopfestival.com
And if you would like to be out on a list where you can find people from back then or they can find you, go to the Reunion List Page.

Cartoon by Dennis Harper