The event it self transcended the music while the musical lineup was at the time a dream line up(btw the band was an addition in place of Leon Russell). My friends and I came over from Ithaca 29 mi(some of them had come up from Binghamton to join us) arriving on Thursday night @ the Glen in the rain, we were just glad to finally pitch our tents and settle in. We woke up not knowing exactly where the show was to be, a state many found themselves in. We then proceeded to the actually concert field that was off the race track by a few hundred yards. Strange scene that Friday, by noon on Friday maybe 100,000 people were starting to mark their concert spots. The field itself had pyramids of boxes of bottle water four one gallon jugs to a box for anyone to take while the 500 or maybe more portable Toilets, which looked adequate at that time.
Friday was the day the ice was to be used up if you had it and much alcohol flowed freely . As I went to the bummer tent(that’s what they called it) to visit some friends from the medical school at cornel who had volunteered to be there, the band opened up to my surprise with” baby don’t do it” and the crowd roared and became alive. A very unexpected surprise at the time. After my visit at to the tent(btw I was nursing a sports injury and was trying to be careful not to do much partying early on) so details and memories of this part of the day are better than Saturdays. The band stopped and with no notice or announcements, the crowd roared again as Garcia walked from one side of the stage to meet Gregg Allman in the middle to embrace each other. I knew something was up then. I meandered closer to the stage something that would only possible on Friday and then it took some effort. As I got close maybe 50 yards The brothers Broke out with One Way Out!!!! then Liz reed. and then a new song Ramblin Man, Man ,Only three songs but it was an exciting half hour or so.
I returned to our now little fort of boxes of water surrounding where our group of 14 people would hold up for the next 30 hrs) The dead came on for their sound check later and played an extended set of maybe a hr or so.
Now we were ready for the real show and excitement was running high.We stayed put in our fort of water boxes.
Saturday was hot, Africa hot.. the crowd was now enormous and I could see steams of people still coming from afar. Helicopters were flying in out and planes were circling the area but were not allowed by the state police to fly over the crowd.. To give an idea of how many people were there, it would now take 20 minutes to walk 75 yds to those now inundated toilets. This is where I start to get a little foggy because I was drinking water that had lsd in it and before I was told, I may have drank a lot(scary because I wasn’t sure how high I was going to get) This is where friends play a big part and I budded up with one and My best friends younger sister. We watched out for each other after making a pact. I walked with her to the portable toilets just to help with her bearings. As I became somewhat of a space man as the legs and arms were a huge sea. I was experienced tripper but this was tough because of the faces kept coming out of no where. Thank god for the greatfull dead — I mean it, They have been accused of playing it safe at the Glen and I had seen them before and new they could get wild and experimental, but they played a mellow two set show- It was nice and I felt safe during it. They were ***** great for that day…
The heat and sun were stifling and this fair skinned Irish kid got fried. The Band came onto threatened skies of a thunder storms while in the middle of their set a parachutist and his group broke through the sky barricade and dove over the crowd. One died attempting to Join up with the others for some kind of flare show. His flare blew up on his belt, killing him as he sailed into the trees past the stage. But most people did not realize the seriousness of his situation until much later.
The band Played a short set due to the rains that came down during their fourth song( I was staring to sober up this point) Now fried and really wet.
The brothers came on with Graham shouting number one number one- meaning the largest rock concert ever and if you have that on tape you have the Glen show. The brothers played a short first set(that’s how I remember it) 5 songs they were pressed for time. But dickey did his usual humor for the openinng of Blue sky(saying are you wet enough?)
Around Midnight and after being in the same spot since friday afternoon I surendered. Our group agreed to move back to our campsite we had not been to since friday Morning. I heard the brothers second set as we moved away(I stopped for Ramblin Man and later could hear some of the jam(johnny b Good) from afar, but it was time to rest..
A great event that was peaceful(something that I’m proud to have been a part of) We took on some stragglers and gave food and some friendly comfort. I don”t think I could have handled saturday afternoon if the vibes were bad.
