The Sixth Annual Big Sur Folk Festival In 1969

One of the coolest things about the internet is when long-running magazines digitize their old articles and post them online. Such is the case with this Rolling Stone article on the sixth annual Big Sur Folk Festival held at the Esalen Institute over the weekend of September 13-14, 1969. Here’s what Rolling Stone’s Jerry Hopkins had to say about the event in his coverage from October 18, 1969:

Big Sur, Calif.—Some of the finest folk singers and musicians in the world positioned themselves on the edge of some of America’s most glorious scenery for a farewell to summer and a celebration of nonviolence in mid-September. It was the sixth annual Big Sur Folk Festival, one of the season’s smallest (in attendance) and loveliest (in mood). In contrast to many other festivals held this past summer, perhaps only 10,000 or 15,000 attended the two-day event and unlike what happened at last year’s Big Sur gathering, there was no police rousting of festival celebrants as they camped along the shoulder of California’s magnificent State Highway 1… read more >