Vortex I
Encyclopedia
Vortex I: A Biodegradable Festival of Life, more commonly known as just Vortex I, was a week-long rock festival
sponsored by the Portland counterculture community with help from the U.S. state of Oregon
, and held in 1970 in Clackamas County
near Portland
. Held in order to demonstrate the positive side of the anti-War Movement and to prevent violent protests during a planned Richard Nixon
appearance in the state, it remains the only state-sponsored rock festival in United States history
.
scheduled an appearance at an American Legion
convention in Portland, Oregon
, in order to promote the continuation
of the Vietnam War
. A coalition of Portland-based anti-Vietnam War
groups, called the People's Army Jamboree, planned a series of demonstrations and other anti-war activities, to be held at the same time as the convention. Law enforcement at all levels, expecting massive numbers of protesters on both sides, were concerned about large-scale violence—an FBI report estimated a potential crowd of 25,000 Legionnaires and 50,000 anti-war protestors, and suggested that the result could be worse than the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
in Chicago
.
A loose association of Portland counterculture groups banded together to devise a strategy that would highlight the best parts of the newly-evolving peace community. Koinonia House, a peace-activist
Christian group hosted a public meeting and from there the idea of a "Biodegradable Festival of Life" called Vortex 1 came into being. People from that meeting including Bobby Whey, Kaushal Yellin, and Glen Swift went to meet with the staff of Governor Tom McCall while others began to scout parklands nearby Portland that could accommodate such an event. In order to keep the peace, Oregon governor
Tom McCall
acted on a suggestion by staffer Ed Westerdahl who had been meeting with the Vortex volunteers. He made an agreement with representatives of local anti-war factions to permit a rock festival to be held in a state park at the same time as Nixon's scheduled visit, and to turn a blind eye toward behavior that had been widespread at the Woodstock Festival
, like nudity and use of marijuana
. McCall has been heard to remark that by making this agreement—less than three months before the upcoming November vote, in which he was running for re-election—he had "committed political suicide
."
The festival was held from August 28 through September 3, at the same time as the American Legion convention. Between 30,000 and 100,000 people attended the event, held at Milo McIver State Park
, near the city of Estacada
. Admission was free of charge, so the gates to the event were not monitored (and an accurate attendance figure is not available). On the busiest day of the festival, a line of automobiles ran 18 miles from the park gates to southeast Portland.
Per agreement with the governor, the police and the Oregon National Guard largely ignored non-violent offenses such as drug use and public nudity, both of which were present at the festival. The festival became known as "The Governor's Pot Party".
The music at the festival was primarily performed by local acts. Oregon bands featured at the concert included Brown Sugar, with Lloyd Jones, Jacob's Ladder, and concert openers Tutu Band. The media reported that many prominent national acts of the time would appear, including Santana
, Jefferson Airplane
, and the Grateful Dead
, but none did. Ginger Baker and Cream came to visit the event but did not play. This did little to dampen the enthusiasm of attendees.
The Vortex 1 festival was essentially divided in two areas: One, at the higher elevations of McIver Park, held a huge home-built stage made of huge Oregon timbers; and the second, below by the Clackamas River held a sprawling encampment. The Portland community-based activist groups tended collectively to the various needs of the festival. The food co-ops and organic restaurants put together a facility that provided free food for the tens of thousands of attendees. The community free clinics (Outside In and LookingGlass)provided medical care. The motor heads parked the cars. The rock and roll halls from Portland ran the stage. Yoga groups held classes. Peace activist goups sponsored teach-ins and so on. It was truly a community-based, non-commercial event. The early pioneers of the Rainbow Gatherings worked there making an information booth, helping with security, lost children, supply trucks, stage building and that is where they took the name Rainbow Family.
handily.
McCall later told Studs Terkel
: "It was the damnedest confrontation you'll ever see. We took a park, 20 miles south of Portland, and turned it into an overnight bivouac and disco party.…There was a lot of pot smoking and skinny dipping but nobody was killed."
Because the event was non-commercial and had no commercial backers and no performers other than local bands, the mainsteam press largely ignored it as a music event, focusing instead on the political aspects. It was one of the handful of largest rock and roll festivals of the era.
Rock festival
A rock festival, or a rock fest, is a large-scale rock music concert, featuring multiple acts.The first rock festivals were put on in the late 1960s and were important socio-cultural milestones. In the 1980s a minor resurgence of festivals occurred with charity as the goal.Today, they are often...
sponsored by the Portland counterculture community with help from the U.S. state of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, and held in 1970 in Clackamas County
Clackamas County, Oregon
Clackamas County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The county was named after the Native Americans living in the area, the Clackamas Indians, who were part of the Chinookan people. As of 2010, the population was 375,992...
near Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. Held in order to demonstrate the positive side of the anti-War Movement and to prevent violent protests during a planned Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
appearance in the state, it remains the only state-sponsored rock festival in United States history
History of the United States
The history of the United States traditionally starts with the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The...
.
Background
In 1970, then-President Richard NixonRichard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
scheduled an appearance at an American Legion
American Legion
The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...
convention in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, in order to promote the continuation
Vietnamization
Vietnamization was a policy of the Richard M. Nixon administration during the Vietnam War, as a result of the Viet Cong's Tet Offensive, to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S....
of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. A coalition of Portland-based anti-Vietnam War
Opposition to the Vietnam War
The movement against US involvment in the in Vietnam War began in the United States with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The US became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace. Peace movements consisted largely of...
groups, called the People's Army Jamboree, planned a series of demonstrations and other anti-war activities, to be held at the same time as the convention. Law enforcement at all levels, expecting massive numbers of protesters on both sides, were concerned about large-scale violence—an FBI report estimated a potential crowd of 25,000 Legionnaires and 50,000 anti-war protestors, and suggested that the result could be worse than the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
1968 Democratic National Convention
The 1968 Democratic National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1968. Because Democratic President Lyndon Johnson had announced he would not seek a second term, the purpose of the convention was to...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
A loose association of Portland counterculture groups banded together to devise a strategy that would highlight the best parts of the newly-evolving peace community. Koinonia House, a peace-activist
Christian group hosted a public meeting and from there the idea of a "Biodegradable Festival of Life" called Vortex 1 came into being. People from that meeting including Bobby Whey, Kaushal Yellin, and Glen Swift went to meet with the staff of Governor Tom McCall while others began to scout parklands nearby Portland that could accommodate such an event. In order to keep the peace, Oregon governor
Governor of Oregon
The Governor of Oregon is the top executive of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. The title of governor was also applied to the office of Oregon's chief executive during the provisional and U.S. territorial governments....
Tom McCall
Tom McCall
Thomas Lawson McCall was an American politician and journalist in the state of Oregon. A Republican, he was the 30th Governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975. A native of Massachusetts, he grew up there and in Central Oregon before attending the University of Oregon...
acted on a suggestion by staffer Ed Westerdahl who had been meeting with the Vortex volunteers. He made an agreement with representatives of local anti-war factions to permit a rock festival to be held in a state park at the same time as Nixon's scheduled visit, and to turn a blind eye toward behavior that had been widespread at the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
, like nudity and use of marijuana
Cannabis in Oregon
Cannabis in Oregon relates to a number of legislative, legal, and cultural events surrounding use of cannabis Oregon was the first U.S. state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of cannabis, and among the first to authorize its use for medical purposes...
. McCall has been heard to remark that by making this agreement—less than three months before the upcoming November vote, in which he was running for re-election—he had "committed political suicide
Political suicide
Political suicide is the concept that a politician or political party would lose widespread support and confidence from the voting public by proposing actions that are seen as unfavourable or that might threaten the status quo. A politician who committed political suicide might be forced to resign...
."
The event
Milo McIver State Park
Milo McIver State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located in Clackamas County, along the Clackamas River, near Estacada and close to Mount Hood...
, near the city of Estacada
Estacada, Oregon
Estacada is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, about 30 miles southeast of Portland. The population was 2,695 at the 2010 census. -History:The Estacada post office opened in February 1904 and the city was incorporated in May 1905...
. Admission was free of charge, so the gates to the event were not monitored (and an accurate attendance figure is not available). On the busiest day of the festival, a line of automobiles ran 18 miles from the park gates to southeast Portland.
Per agreement with the governor, the police and the Oregon National Guard largely ignored non-violent offenses such as drug use and public nudity, both of which were present at the festival. The festival became known as "The Governor's Pot Party".
The music at the festival was primarily performed by local acts. Oregon bands featured at the concert included Brown Sugar, with Lloyd Jones, Jacob's Ladder, and concert openers Tutu Band. The media reported that many prominent national acts of the time would appear, including Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
, and the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
, but none did. Ginger Baker and Cream came to visit the event but did not play. This did little to dampen the enthusiasm of attendees.
The Vortex 1 festival was essentially divided in two areas: One, at the higher elevations of McIver Park, held a huge home-built stage made of huge Oregon timbers; and the second, below by the Clackamas River held a sprawling encampment. The Portland community-based activist groups tended collectively to the various needs of the festival. The food co-ops and organic restaurants put together a facility that provided free food for the tens of thousands of attendees. The community free clinics (Outside In and LookingGlass)provided medical care. The motor heads parked the cars. The rock and roll halls from Portland ran the stage. Yoga groups held classes. Peace activist goups sponsored teach-ins and so on. It was truly a community-based, non-commercial event. The early pioneers of the Rainbow Gatherings worked there making an information booth, helping with security, lost children, supply trucks, stage building and that is where they took the name Rainbow Family.
Aftermath
Though no doubt aided by a last-minute cancellation by Nixon, the event had its desired effect. Both the American Legion convention and the anti-war activities of the Jamboree were carried out without any major incident. The concert was considered by many to be an excellent means of preventing violence. Far from committing political suicide, McCall won re-election that November, defeating opponent Robert W. StraubRobert W. Straub
Robert William "Bob" Straub , was an American politician and businessman in the state of Oregon. A native of California, he settled in Eugene, Oregon, where he entered politics. A Democratic politician, he served in the Oregon State Senate, as the Oregon State Treasurer, and one term as the 31st...
handily.
McCall later told Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
: "It was the damnedest confrontation you'll ever see. We took a park, 20 miles south of Portland, and turned it into an overnight bivouac and disco party.…There was a lot of pot smoking and skinny dipping but nobody was killed."
Because the event was non-commercial and had no commercial backers and no performers other than local bands, the mainsteam press largely ignored it as a music event, focusing instead on the political aspects. It was one of the handful of largest rock and roll festivals of the era.