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Powder Ridge Rock Concert: 1970

The Week Middlefield Was Going to Change the World!

Bill Ryczek, Past President of the Society, gave a fascinating talk on the 1970 Middlefield rock concert that wasn’t at Powder Ridge.  An appreciative audience learned about Melanie’s performance and many other unusual incidents at the Hubbard Room of the Russell Library on March 10, 2011. 

For a blistering hot weekend at the end of July 1970, the eyes of the entire country were on the Powder Ridge ski area in Middlefield, Connecticut, where a group of New York promoters planned to stage a youth festival and rock concert that would capitalize on the karma of the previous summer’s Woodstock Festival. Youth culture was one of the burning issues of society and the divisions of America were symbolized in many ways by the massive gatherings that focused on music but promised to change the pattern of human interaction. 

Time magazine ran a feature article on the Powder Ridge event, while The New York Times and many other newspapers produced a series of lengthy stories on the gathering of nearly 30,000 young people that took place despite a court injunction that prohibited the 30 advertised artists, including some of the biggest names in the world of rock music, from attending. The only musician who appeared was Melanie Safka, who was smuggled on site in disguise and performed with a sound system jerry-rigged from a generator on a Mister Softee truck. 

Several members of the audience had attended Powder Ridge or lived nearby, and they all had stories to tell.  The evening ended with music by Melanie.  Thanks to all who attended!

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