Between August 30th and September 1, 1969, the first and only Texas International Pop Festival was staged in Lewisville, a small town outside of Dallas. The event was staged two weeks after the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in New York, and thus has had its place in music history a bit overshadowed by the more well-known event. The festival is notable for being one of the few outdoor multi-bill festivals that Led Zeppelin would play during their existence.
The Texas International Pop Festival was dreamed up and organized by Angus G. Wynne III, son of Angus G. Wynne II, who gained his fortune and fame by creating the Six Flags Amusement Park chain. Wynne who had never staged a musical festival before decided to call upon Alex Cooley who had put on the Atlanta Pop Festival earlier that year to help organize the event. The two men formed the company Superfest and set about signing acts to perform over the course of their envisioned three day event.
Lineup
Saturday, August
30
Canned Heat
Chicago Transit
Authority
James Cotton
Blues Band
Janis Joplin
B.B. King
Herbie Mann
Rotary
Connection
Sam & Dave
Sunday, August
31
Chicago Transit
Authority
James Cotton
Blues Band
Delaney &
Bonnie & Friends
Incredible
String Band
B.B. King
Led Zeppelin
Herbie Mann
Sam & Dave
Santana
Monday,
September 1
Johnny Winter
Delaney &
Bonnie & Friends
B.B. King
Nazz
Sly and the
Family Stone
Spirit
Sweetwater
Ten Years After
Tony Joe White
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| Led Zeppelin (TIPF August 31, 1969) |
Ultimately, 120,000 to 150,000 people showed up and for the most part the festival went off without a hitch; one person, John Shope collapsed and later died from a case of heatstroke. The organizers had the foresight to create a free campsite for all the concertgoers to occupy during their stay. The campsite was set around Lewisville Lake and included a small stage that some of the headliners and a few other acts who weren't booked for the official event played during the entirety of the three day event. It was on this side-stage that Hugh Romney, head of the Hog Farm commune received the nom de guerre Wavy Gravy.
Led Zeppelin played the second night of the festival on August 31 and followed legend of the blues B.B. King. King, who played a set each day of the festival, went unaware that he was playing to the same crowd every night and told the exact same jokes and stories to the crowd's increasing amusement. The band was actually introduced that night incorrectly as "The" Led Zeppelin. The band played a pretty standard, yet abbreviated, 1969 setlist:
Train Kept a Rollin'
I Can't Quit You Baby
Dazed and Confused
You
Shook Me
How Many More Times Medley (Suzie Q, Eyesight To The
Blind, "Lemon Song", Bye Bye Baby (Baby Good-Bye)
Communication
Breakdown
 |
| Jimmy Page at TIPF |
Interestingly, this festival, much like Woodstock and Monterey Pop before it, was filmed for documentary purposes and clips of it have popped up over the years, however the long coveted full Led Zeppelin set has yet to see the light of day, and it is thought that a majority of the footage has been either lost or destroyed. Some bits of footage do exist though, including this clip below:
On January 29, 2010, the festival was commemorated by the Texas Historical Commission and a plaque was erected on the site.
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