MONTEREY POPS AGAIN

The Monterey International Pop Festival is celebrating its 50th anniversary in style. In addition to a commemorative three-day concert on the site of the original festival, the Grammy Museum will present an exhibit, Monterey International Pop Festival: Music, Love, and Flowers, 1967, opening 5/11, through the fall.

The exhibit will include artifacts from festival organizer Lou Adler as well as items from some of the performers, including Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Ravi Shankar and the Grateful Dead. Henry Diltz, Tom O’Neil, Elaine Mayes and Ed Caraeff are among those whose photographs will be displayed.

On 5/10 at 7:30pm 83-year-old Adler will appear at the Grammy Museum for a Q&A with Grammy Museum Executive Director Scott Goldman. "Monterey Pop was about the music, is still about the music, and that's why it remains relevant on this 50th anniversary," Adler said.

In 1967, the Monterey International Pop Festival was an ambitious three-day musical happening, whose groovy vibe kicked off the Summer of Love, brought together an eclectic cross-section of musicians and helped launch a cottage industry of hippie-centric rock festivals. The event is also notable for launching the careers of Joplin, The Who and Hendrix in the U.S.

Monterey International Pop Festival Celebrates 50 Years is planned at the site of the original festival–the Monterey County Fairgrounds–on 6/16-6/18. The lineup includes Jack Johnson, Father John Misty, Norah Jones (whose father, Ravi Shankar, performed at the 1967 festival), Kurt Vile and the Violators, Gary Clark Jr. and a dozen other artists. OG Monterey performers scheduled to appear include Eric Burden & the Animals, Phil Lesh (who appeared with the Grateful Dead) and the Terrapin Family Band and ex-MG Booker T. Jones and his Stax Revue.

The festival is produced by Another Planet Entertainment in conjunction with Goldenvoice and Adler, who organized the original festival with the Mamas and Papas’ John Phillips.

In other Monterey Pop-related news, the iconic DA Pennebaker documentary, Monterey Pop, will get a theatrical re-release in June, and the Monterey Museum of Art will feature a Monterey Pop photography show 6/2-9/18.

Museum of Art will feature a Monterey Pop photography show 6/2-9/18.