How the weekend was organised
The Monterey International Pop Festival ran from Friday, 16 June to Sunday, 18 June 1967. The main concerts took place in the evenings, with additional afternoon sessions on the Saturday and Sunday. This article gives the festival lineup in the order it is generally reported. Published running orders differ in small details, and some acts appeared in more than one slot or were added late, so treat the sequence below as a reliable outline rather than a minute-by-minute record.
Friday, 16 June
Friday night had the most mainstream bill of the weekend. The Association, a California group known for polished harmonies and radio hits, are generally reported as the opening act. The Canadian group the Paupers, singer Lou Rawls, Beverly, Johnny Rivers and Eric Burdon and the Animals are also associated with the night.
The closing act was Simon and Garfunkel, the folk-pop duo whose records were widely played on Top 40 radio. The Friday bill sets the tone: the festival began with accessible pop and folk and moved toward harder-edged music over the following days.
Saturday, 17 June
Saturday was split into an afternoon programme and an evening one, and it was the day that leaned most heavily on blues and the Bay Area sound.
The afternoon session featured Canned Heat, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Country Joe and the Fish, Al Kooper, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Steve Miller Band and the Electric Flag. Big Brother, with singer Janis Joplin, played in the afternoon, and a second set was arranged on Sunday night, reportedly because the first was not filmed. The reasons for that change are tied up in disagreements about filming, and accounts differ.
The evening bill is generally given as Moby Grape, Hugh Masekela, the Byrds, Laura Nyro, Jefferson Airplane, Booker T. and the MG’s and, to close, Otis Redding. Jefferson Airplane were then promoting their Surrealistic Pillow album. Redding was backed by Booker T. and the MG’s, the Stax house band, and closed the night in a set often counted among the festival’s finest.
Sunday, 18 June
Sunday began in the afternoon with Ravi Shankar, who had a long slot to himself. Many accounts describe the Sunday afternoon as quieter and more reflective than the nights, an intended contrast with the loud evenings on either side.
The Sunday evening show is the most celebrated. It is generally reported as including the Blues Project, a second set from Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Group With No Name, Buffalo Springfield, the Who, the Grateful Dead, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Scott McKenzie and, as the closing act, the Mamas and the Papas. David Crosby of the Byrds is reported to have performed with Buffalo Springfield at the festival, which fits with the informal, cross-band atmosphere of the weekend.
The Who and Hendrix were placed one after the other in the second half of the evening, and the question of who would go on first is the subject of several differing stories. What can be said is that the Who’s set ended with the smashing of instruments, that Hendrix’s set closed with his guitar on fire, and that both are covered in a separate article on the weekend’s iconic moments. The Mamas and the Papas, whose own hits had made the group a symbol of California pop, closed the festival, and McKenzie’s “San Francisco” was heard on the same night.
What the bill tells us
A few features of the overall lineup are worth noting.
- It was a mixed bill. Soul (Redding, Booker T.), folk (Simon and Garfunkel), blues (Butterfield, Canned Heat), Indian classical music (Shankar) and psychedelic rock (the Airplane, the Dead, Hendrix) all appeared.
- It leaned heavily on California but included British acts, namely the Who, Eric Burdon and the Animals, and Hendrix, who was an American but whose rise to stardom had begun in London.
- It was weighted toward music from the albums and singles of 1966 and 1967, which meant it captured the moment closely, a feature that helped the festival remain a reference point.
Some well-known absences are also part of the story. Several major acts did not appear, and the festival’s reputation rests on the performances that did take place.