The ‘Summer of Love’ Began On This Date in 1967 With the Opening of Monterey Pop Festival

The Monterey Pop Festival, which began on this date in 1967, ushered in an era of free love that also brought the psychedelic music of San Francisco to the world.

For tickets as low as $3, tens-of-thousands of music fans crowded onto the Monterey County Fairgrounds for three days of free love and music.  The festival marked the first American performance of the Who & the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and was also the first large crowd to see both Janis Joplin AND Otis Redding.

The list of bands that performed over the three days of the festival, which began on June 16th, 1967, is impressive.  The Byrds, the Grateful Dead, Simon & Garfunkel, Steve Miller Band, Canned Heat, The Mamas & The Papas (who helped organize the festival), Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield and many more took time on the stage to usher in the world's first festival featuring rock music.

Get a look and listen at some of the performances that didn't make it onto the original documentary that featured some of the breakout tracks mentioned above.