Ozark Music Festival, (1974)

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The Ozark Music Festival was held on the Missouri State Fairgrounds, in July 1974 in Sedalia, Missouri. While the Woodstock Festival from 1969 is the most well-known rock festival, the Ozark Music Festival was one of the largest music festivals ever held, while at the same time, it was also one of the least remembered festivals. "No Hassles Guaranteed" was the motto of the festival.

A company called Musical Productions Inc. (MPI) from Kansas City promoted the festival, and assured officials from the Missouri Department of Agriculture (the State agency which oversaw the State Fair) and the Sedalia Chamber of Commerce that the three-day weekend event would be a blue-grass and “pop rock” festival with no more than 50,000 tickets sold.

What happen that week end changed a lot of people's perception of rock festivals and changed the quiet little town of Sedalia, Missouri forever.

Even thought the Festival was not scheduled to start until Friday, thousands arrived Thursday night and there was already a steady line of cars, trucks, vans, hitchikers and even an occasional hippie camper slowly winding towards Sedalia and the fairgrounds.

On Friday morning, many Sedalians woke up with sleeping hippies, bikers and groupies sprawled out across their lawns, and a long line of bumper-to bumper traffic clogging the roads into town. Some residents were not able to get to work, and for many, their fears were realized as the Fairgrounds became the center of chaos for the days to come.

Midnight Special MC, Wolfman Jack hosted the event, and was on stage nightly to introduce the groups and to encourage people to stay cool and “clear the light towers of people before they fall”.

The stage was a huge double sided affair, with one band performing and a second band ready to go with just the turning on and off of spotlights.

The roar of the crowd was defining when The Eagles dedicated “Already Gone” to Nixon and his impending impeachment, as he was the symbol of everything they were against. And Barnstorm sang “ Rocky Mountainway” as “bases are loaded and Nixon’s at bat”; yet another politically charged moment that brought thousands to their feet cheering.

On Saturday morning the Festival was going full force and the town was in gridlock. The festival had grown to around 184,000 attendees, and all of the bands had to be shuttled in and out by helicopter.

By Monday, July 22, the festival crowd had left, and a field of garbage was left behind. Damage estimates of $100,000 were reported, and with the Missouri State Fair only a few weeks away the fairgrounds had to be cleaned up quickly.

Some estimates have put the crowd count at 350,000 people which would make this one of the largest music events (Rock Festivals) in history.

Performers

Posters for the festival listed that some of the best bands in country and southern rock would be featured including:

Rumours from the festival

The "No Hassles Guaranteed" advertisement was meant to be a clear indication that the festival would be a wide open drug event and that the community would soon be invaded by tens of thousands of drug culture groupies.

Drugs were bought and sold openly, with an entire roll of “drug” vendors set up with signs and sample products.

The entire concert was filmed by NBC for future release, but the footage was confiscated by the courts due to the amount of damage done to the city and fairgrounds.

The Hells Angels biker club became the law on the fairgrounds.

Missouri National Guard helicopters were in constant flight, being used to carry drug overdoses away from the festival.

Several brothels were set up in busses on the fairgrounds.

After the festival, helicopters were flying over the fairgrounds spraying lime as a precaution against the outbreak of disease.

Bulldozers scraped up topsoil, littered with discarded drug paraphernalia and gnawed cobs of corn from a neighboring field.

Mountains of contaminated dirt and garbage was hauled to the county landfills.

"REFERENCES:"
→Most references are from personal accounts as there is almost no history of the fesitval published, and I am not a professional writer.
→Band have been researched onthe internet for mention of playing the Festival on their websites.
→Many bands were confirmed from a poster of the festival which I do not have permission to post in this article.

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