The Woodstock music festival was one of the signature moments the 1960s. Site owner Max Yasgur, a farmer and the concert site owner, memorably declared that the gathering proved that “a half a million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music.”
Woodstock’s success naturally inspired imitators, but the magic was hard to recapture. The Altamont concert later that year famously turned deadly when a member of Hell’s Angels, who had been hired for security, stabbed an audience member near the stage as the Rolling Stones performed.
Another music festival, the Celebration of Life in June 1971, is not as well-remembered as Altamont, but it was such a disaster that it helped put an end to the music festivals for a while.
The Celebration of Life had to change locations three times due to local resistance before finding a last-minute home on a remote tract of land in McCrea, Louisiana, about 60 miles north of Baton Rouge. The festival was scheduled for eight days but started late and shut down halfway through, with the IRS placing a tax lien that froze the organizers’ bank accounts. Performers who did get on the stage included Chuck Berry, the Stephen Stills Band, and Ike & Tina Turner. But others who had been promoted on the bill but never made the stage included Pink Floyd, the Beach Boys, the Allman Brothers and Miles Davis.
Most tragically, multiple attendees drowned in a river that bordered the festival site while seeking refuge from Louisiana’s summer heat.
Here’s what LIFE magazine wrote about the event, in a story headlined “Perhaps the last of the rock festival fiascos“:
Even before it opened, last week’s rock festival in McCrea, La., was a disaster. The stage collapsed while it was under construction, and when it was fixed, the sound system failed. Most of the previously advertised talent didn’t show up, food was overpriced, water was scarce, and sanitation facilities inadequate. The temperature soared over 100 degrees. Within four days there had been five deaths—four drownings and a drug overdose—and what the crowd wanted most was to go home.
While some later reports lowered the number of confirmed deaths to two, this was a brutal event by any accounting.
LIFE staff photographer Bill Ray appears to have arrived in McCrea after the music stopped, but he captured some of the aftermath of the Celebration of Life, including concertgoers, many of them nude, trying to cool down in the river. Ray also took many shots of people looking to hitch a ride home, holding up signs requesting transport to such locations as Virginia, Miami and New Mexico—a testament to how far people had traveled to get there. The happiest images he shot were of people who had been picked up and were on their way home.
In 2013 a 32-minute documentary called McCrea 1971 reviewed what went wrong with Celebration of Life, and the problems began with its hasty setup. In one historic clip a promoter said, “It takes about a month to set up a festival, but we’ll try to do it in about three days.” A local who attended the festival talked about the folly of festival goers swimming in a river that people from the area knew to be a “death trap.” He said, “I know of no one I have ever met who would willingly get in and swim in the Atchafalaya River.”
In 2018 Rolling Stone magazine ran its own retrospective on the Celebration of Life and talked about how out of hand things got. Because of the heat performances that were originally planned to start during the day shifted to the overnight, leaving attendees with nothing to do all day. Makeshift boulevards called “Smack Street” and “Cocaine Alley” cropped up on the festival site. Stunningly, given what happened at Altamont, festival organizers hired the Galloping Goose Motorcycle Club for security and its members reportedly became abusive with attendees.
LIFE magazine’s wish that music festivals go away for a while came to fruition. And while festivals have made a major comeback in recent years, they now look very different, with stronger organizations behind them. Some complain about how corporate they have become, with special bleachers for VIPs and so on. However you feel about that, it’s worth remembering that a more loosely organized gathering can come with its own hazards—sometimes big ones.
The ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival, after several late location changes, took place in McCrea, Louisiana, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers sought relief from the sweltering heat at the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers sought relief from the sweltering heat at the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrea, Louisiana, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrea, Louisiana, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers caught a ride home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Concertgoers caught a ride home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.
Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
