Love Valley Rock Festival 1970
I moved down to North Carolina with Brad after high school. We had just returned from Charlottesville where we had gone to harvest some of our 16-foot-tall cannabis plants. We thought we were clever to store them behind the roof liner of his van to dry and transport. We heard about a rock festival at Love Valley N.C., a location which normally was a wild west reenactment venue. Supposedly if you came early to set up, you got in free. So, armed with about a pound of mediocre marijuana, we went.
It was anarchy. There were so many people, the town, normal population 99, was overwhelmed. Crowd estimates were as high as an unlikely 200000. It was dubbed “The South’s Woodstock”. Traffic was at a standstill. Lines formed at the few fresh water sources. Several scary biker groups showed up and apparently were hired for security.
Late one night I lost a hit of LSD in between the slats of the boardwalk. I was on my knees trying to fish it out when I heard a click, and a deep voice saying, “what the hell are you up to”. I looked up into the barrel of a huge revolver, being held by a man wearing a long winter underwear onesie, and a cowboy hat. I stammered that I had dropped a quarter and was trying to get it. He said “like hell you were, now git” I got.
The Allman Brothers
Band was the headliner. I honestly don’t remember much of the music. But for
some reason I distinctly remember one unknown person in the audience who
periodically would let out a very penetrating high-pitched yowl, that would
decrescendo into a hyena type cackle.The crowd loved it.
What with the overcrowding, we were lucky, we had Brads van to sleep in. And in my usual boy scout mode, I had brought food, probably a lot of Dinty Moore Beef Stew. And there was all that pot.
I think we must have left early, because we did miss the incident at the end where a person who had been deputized, had a shotgun, and shot dead a man in traffic who refused commands. Like I said, it was anarchy. And it is interesting how the decades have sanitized the memories. Most accounts now gloss over the bikers, and don't even mention the killing.
Great pictures at https://buzzell.smugmug.com/Events/Love-Valley-Rock-Festival-1970. I didn’t see myself.
Wick Hunt
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