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  • Diamond Head Crater Festivals

    I'm toying with the idea of assembling in one place as much info about the old Diamond Head Crater Festivals as I can. There are a few anecdotes on the Web already, but I'm wondering: Is there anyone here who has memories of one or more of the festivals?

    Unfortunately, I was below concert-going age when these shows took place (a pity--I was a HUGE Styx and Journey fan in high school), but part of me has always longed for some kind of return to the tradition. I realize that will likely never happen, so I'll have to experience it vicariously through your memories.

    Please--any details at all, whether objective or subjective, would be most appreciated. If you don't want to go through this all online, I'd be happy to continue the discussion in email or via telephone.

    Thanks a lot! Perhaps, in order to get people jump-started, I'll post links to other websites that make mention of the Festivals.
    But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
    GrouchyTeacher.com

  • #2
    Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

    I attended the 1970, 1971 concerts, was a stage hand/electrician on the 1972 and was the original site manager for the 1973 event but resigned prior to returning to New York. Bob Peyton and Bruce "Buddha" Bickley were the main organizers for stage/site security and later the whole event.
    I don't remember too many details, such as what musical groups played, but Peyton and Bickley, if you can find them, might prove to be very knowledgable. They hung out with a guy from the Honolulu newspaper who also had a role in organizing the events, sorry can't remember his name.
    By the way, they organized security for a number of other concerts of the time, such as the Rolling Stones at the HIC in 1973, Loggin and Messina at the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus amphitheater, and I think they were involved in some Joni Mitchell, Jackson Brown and Jose Feliciano concerts at the Waikiki Shell.
    If you have any more information or questions, let me know.

    Good luck,
    Bob Coia


    d
    Originally posted by scrivener
    I'm toying with the idea of assembling in one place as much info about the old Diamond Head Crater Festivals as I can. There are a few anecdotes on the Web already, but I'm wondering: Is there anyone here who has memories of one or more of the festivals?

    Unfortunately, I was below concert-going age when these shows took place (a pity--I was a HUGE Styx and Journey fan in high school), but part of me has always longed for some kind of return to the tradition. I realize that will likely never happen, so I'll have to experience it vicariously through your memories.

    Please--any details at all, whether objective or subjective, would be most appreciated. If you don't want to go through this all online, I'd be happy to continue the discussion in email or via telephone.

    Thanks a lot! Perhaps, in order to get people jump-started, I'll post links to other websites that make mention of the Festivals.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Diamond Head Crater Festival

      Hey, Bob, thanks for the insights! This thread was lost 'til you found it again.

      Turns out Scrivener's post is now the third Google result for Diamond Head Crater Festivals, behind a mention in fellow blogger Kaneblues' site and this Star-Bulletin article from 1999. Here's a thread on another forum on the festivals. Definitely sounds like a topic begging for an online historical resource.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Diamond Head Crater Festival

        Originally posted by pzarquon
        Definitely sounds like a topic begging for an online historical resource.
        Yeah. That's what I'm thinking.

        Bob: Thanks so much for the names and info; it definitely gives me a little more to go on. I have spent some time in the library and have a pretty good file now; all I need now are permissions.

        And testimonies. These are what would be the heart and soul of whatever I put together. So Bob, if I were to recap for you who played during those years, do you think you'd be able to shoot back whatever memories you have?

        Seriously, thanks a lot.
        But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
        GrouchyTeacher.com

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

          I'm sure most of you folks know that a new Diamond Head crater concert has been approved for 2006.

          Diamond Head Crater Concert Set for 2006

          The first concert inside Diamond Head crater in more than 25 years has been approved by the state, clearing the way for the Hawai'i International Music Festival and Conference to be held two years from now.

          ...

          Gibson, who attended several neighborhood board meetings and met with the Diamond Head Citizen Advisory Committee, said he will continue to work with the community to overcome objections. Gibson has pledged the formation of a foundation using $50,000 in proceeds from the first concert to help implement the master plan for Diamond Head.
          I am quite sure Kahala area residents and possibly environmentalists will do everything to try and not make this happen.
          I'm still here. Are you?

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

            Originally posted by scrivener
            I'm toying with the idea of assembling in one place as much info about the old Diamond Head Crater Festivals as I can. There are a few anecdotes on the Web already, but I'm wondering:

            Is there anyone here who has memories of one or more of the festivals?

            I did promo for the festivals back in those days in exchange for admittance to all the events..
            Still have some of the posters. They are beautiful in a great ol kine hippie way.

            Did construction on many of the stages. Saw firsthand many groups for the first time in public, groups who then went on to become household names.

            Worked for Sunbums magazine to a small extent, too... some of my friends who i met up with lately in the past few years reminded me they ran Sunmbums mag and helped the Festival shows to become a reality.
            (still have many back issues...)

            Small world then.
            Also did some stuff for the old Civic auditoirum for tix to the rock events there. ho da t'rills eh!?
            Last edited by kimo55; November 22, 2004, 03:30 PM.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Diamond Head Crater Festival

              Originally posted by pzarquon
              Diamond Head Crater Festivals

              Definitely sounds like a topic begging for an online historical resource.

              no. a book and a dvd.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

                Just dont wake that sleepy girl up ya'll!! LOL
                If anyone on Oahu is NOT happy , feel free to trade places with me.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

                  Clip from Journey's performance in 1977 here:

                  http://www.robertfleischman.com/FreeConcert.html

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

                    Clip from Journey's performance in 1977




                    cool.
                    stage is bigger than i remember.

                    wish i could jump into a time machine and hand the cameraman a stedicam or tripod...

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

                      Originally posted by kimo55
                      Worked for Sunbums magazine to a small extent, too... some of my friends who i met up with lately in the past few years reminded me they ran Sunmbums mag and helped the Festival shows to become a reality. (still have many back issues...) Small world then.
                      No way!!! After I got out of the Navy in 1976 I marched into Sunbums and up to John Leonard's office with a handful of political cartoons I was working on at the time. "How much are you going to pay me for my cartoons?"

                      Leonard replied, "I'll tell you what. I like you. You go downstairs and tell Hank McMonigle that I sent you. He'll teach you how this business works."

                      Hank taught me to run the stat camera and I learned a bit about paste-up and how a newspaper is produced. I worked there six months, for free. But learned a lot.

                      That was my introduction to graphics, print production and publishing. 30 years later I'm still working in graphics, print production, publishing and I added web design and production to the resume.

                      Still working at the Star-Bulletin are John Berger and Mark Coleman, both Sunbums alums. And Chris Leonard, John's son, runs buyhawaiianmusic.com on the Big Island.

                      Maybe Sunbums should be another thread here?!
                      Make trouble, have fun, do good stuffs.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

                        I attended several Crater Festivals, beginning while I was still in high school. I was there for the Carlos Santana/Buddy Miles set which was turned into the Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles Live album. The interior gatefold of this double album contains a panorama of the crowd inside the crater, taken from behind Buddy's drum kit.

                        I worked for Tom Sellers for a while in the '80s. He was the guy who illustrated that glorious woman in a pareu rising from Diamond Head Crater at sunrise on my favorite Sunshine Festival poster.

                        I have several photos taken "on the grass" sitting in the common peoples' area down in front of the stage. They're not very good, but they are genuine. I'd be willing to scan a few and send them along for your effort.

                        Taro Patch has a thread on the crater festivals.

                        I found this page with a photo of the crater festival.

                        By the way, they were called "Sunshine Festival" so if you do a Google search, you'll find more hits that way.
                        Make trouble, have fun, do good stuffs.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

                          Originally posted by zztype
                          I have several photos taken "on the grass" sitting in the common peoples' area down in front of the stage. They're not very good, but they are genuine. I'd be willing to scan a few and send them along for your effort.

                          Cooo whul! I was one of those people on grass... ahem... prolly seen in yer pics!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

                            Originally posted by zztype
                            I worked for Tom Sellers

                            he was great in Magnum P.I.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

                              Hey, I found ANOTHER Sunshine Festival poster for sale on eBay. Scrivener, maybe you want to grab a screen shot of the item for your archive before it's gone.

                              The Sunshine Festival poster is not the Tom Sellers 1974 version, but also offered in the same auction is a small San Francisco Rag Shop poster which WAS illustrated by Sellers. (Rag Shop was one of his main early clients.) He obviously based this poster on his crater festival poster, or vice-versa.
                              Last edited by zztype; February 22, 2005, 09:15 PM. Reason: Additional info
                              Make trouble, have fun, do good stuffs.

                              Comment

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