Original Pre-concert poster for the Summer Jam, 1973
OYSTER BAY, N.Y. (July 11, 2023) – The Bahr Gallery, an art gallery dedicated to rare, first-edition, psychedelic rock poster art, is currently feraturing vintage posters celebrating the bands who played at the largest single-day rock concert ever: The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, July 28, 1973.
Search Grateful Dead posters HERE
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It is claimed that the Watkins Glen event was the largest gathering of people in the history of the United States. Considering that most of those who attended the event hailed from the Northeast and that the average age of those present was around seventeen to twenty-four that would mean close to one out of every three young people from Boston to New York was at the festival.
On July 28, the Grateful Dead opened with two long sets, followed by The Band and then the Allman Brothers who were the hottest band in the land at that time. The 10 hours of music was followed by an epic hourlong encore jam featuring all the different band members. The exhibition will feature the original Watkins Glen poster used to advertise the event as well as other posters featuring the Allman Brothers, The Band and the Grateful Dead.
“Perhaps it was ‘Fear of Missing Out’ on another Woodstock-type of experience that drove some folks to attend the event and on the day before, July 27, there were already 100,000 people in the audience. The bands did their soundchecks but then the Dead extended theirs into a legendary 2-hour 2-set show including the 20-minute ‘Soundboard Jam.’ For this reason, the Bahr Gallery opening reception will actually commemorate that historic performance by the Dead, on the 27th.” noted Bahr Gallery owner Ted Bahr.
Highlights of the exhibition include a rare 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival poster – the only time the Allman Brothers and Jimi Hendrix were on the same bill, an early 1970 Allman Brothers poster from the Boston Tea Party; both Last Waltz posters featuring The Band, and also the poster for The Band’s first performance ever, at Winterland in April 1969.
Several rare and iconic Grateful Dead posters will also be on the walls including the first showings of the 1974 Philadelphia “Wall of Sound” concert poster and the 1973 “Swell Dance” poster by David Byrd, plus the famous 1966 “Skeleton & Roses” poster by Mouse and Kelley, a first edition “Aoxomoxoa,” by Rick Griffin, the 1980 Radio City poster and the iconic 1968 poster known as the “Santana Lion,” a Grateful Dead poster that Santana asked artist Lee Conklin to repurpose for the cover of their first album. More than 35 works in total comprise the exhibition.