Because I recently found out about the “Underrated” one….

Overrated: Woodstock

The whole thing was even more a mess than you imagine. The promoters / backers (a group of “venture capitalists” who, by the way, had never organized any sort of festival before) were only in it for the money. They lied about how many people their weekend music fest would have to the people whose land they wanted to use – and how much experience they had in organizing events. And as a result of their inexperience, bands refused to take the stage until they got paid, which meant the promoters had to send a local banker to his bank to grab the cash (using one of the promoter’s trust funds as collateral).

You know about the portable toilets, right? They also forgot to consider feeding all those attendees…. They actually ran out of food on the first day, so the promoters had to beg locals to help out….

But we all make a big deal about the incredible talent that was there, right? Well, most of the performers were nobodies at the time. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young had only one concert under their belt. And who remembers “Country Joe and the Fish” other than for their having been at Woodstock?

Underrated: The Harlem Cultural Festival, 1969

Well, maybe because it was a *series* of concerts and not one single event….

In the mid 60s, nightclub singer Tony Lawrence was working on community programs in Harlem. He got the idea to have a series of free events in Harlem, by Blacks, and for Blacks. The second one, in 1968, featured a series of concerts with big name musicians like Count Basie, Tito Puente, and Mahalia Jackson.

The next summer, they moved the concerts to Mt. Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) in the heart of Harlem. With the full support of the New York City Parks Dept, and financial backing from Maxwell House Coffee, the festival ran for six Sunday afternoons. And it was all free.

This ad for the festival will give you an idea of the talent that performed:

Some 300,000 people in total attended that series of concerts.

There was no violence, no one died, no one went hungry, roads were not closed, and the locals loved it. The concerts were for them, after all.

The whole thing was filmed. Some of the footage was turned into two one hour TV specials, but most of it sat in the producer’s basement because he couldn’t find anyone who wanted anything to do with it.

Things finally came together in 2016….. The resulting documentary premiered at Sundance in 2021.…

I know which festival I’d have been at…..