How “Monterey Pop” Made Rock History

The pre-cursor to Woodstock had many musical firsts

Janis Joplin performs at the Monterey International Pop Festival, 1967. From the 1968 film, “Monterey Pop.” Credit: Criterion

Rock enthusiasts consider the Woodstock Festival of 1969 the greatest rock festival in history. But two years earlier, the Monterey International Pop Festival, also known as “Monterey Pop,” happened. It is considered by many to be the inspiration for Woodstock.

Monterey Pop took place in June 1967, sandwiched between January’s “Human Be-In” and the “Summer of Love,” both occurring in San Francisco. The Human Be-In marked the introduction of Timothy Leary’s psychedelically-infused infamous slogan, “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” During the Summer of Love, some 100,000 youth converged on the Haight-Ashbury district and Golden Gate Park of San Francisco to celebrate the hippie counterculture of the Sixties.

The three-day Monterey International Pop Festival was itself preceded by the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival, a two-day event that took place north of San Francisco a week earlier. Monterey Pop was held from June 16–18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. It was heavily promoted and attended, popularized by the hit song “Monterey” by Eric Burdon and the Animals, and it became the subject of the 1968 documentary film, Monterey Pop, by D. A. Pennebaker.