Historic Photo: Summer Jam Festival at Watkins Glen, NY, 1973.

The photo above (by a former Flickr user, Jay Falvey, whose page is now offline) was taken 51 years ago this week, on July 28, 1973, at Watkins Glen, New York. This was the site of the famous “Summer Jam” festival, a one-day jam at which three bands performed: the Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers Band and The Band. Though only a single day and three bands, Summer Jam was an epic event for young people across the entire U.S. Northeast. A staggering 600,000 people attended Summer Jam, which was held at a racetrack. As you can see from the photo, the weather did not exactly cooperate. Nonetheless, Summer Jam was a pivotal event in the memories of countless people who attended it and, for some, a defining moment of that entire era.

Though I was only a few months old in July 1973 and obviously wasn’t there, I have a bit of a history with this particular photo. The Summer Jam festival is the backdrop of one of the most enduring and mysterious missing persons mysteries in American history, that of Brooklyn teenagers Mitchel Weiser and Bonita Bickwit, age 16 and 15, respectively. They vanished on the way to this concert and have never been seen again in the more than half-century since. There have been tons of theories, false confessions and investigative blunders related to this case (which you can read about here).

When I started my original blog, now long defunct, in spring/summer 2013 I did several articles profiling famous missing persons cases, including that one. As part of a series on the Weiser-Bickwit mystery I did a brief profile of the Summer Jam festival itself, which included this picture. Over the years it was up—my original blog went down in 2019—numerous people who attended Watkins Glen posted comments recalling their experiences at the festival. They were all fascinating. The comments survive at my old blog archive; perhaps I should compile them at some point.

Look at the young man at the far right of the picture, with the fuzzy long hair, glasses and carrying a plastic milk jug. Four years after I ran the original article, in 2017, someone who claimed to be that exact person posted a comment. His name was Steve, and here is what he said:

“Wow, a friend just found this. I’m the guy on the far right of the photo. Just graduated from Liverpool HS and last big party with my high school friends.

Innocence lasted a bit longer until after I moved to SF Bay Area (where else?). Still alive and still a fan of the Band. IOW still missing Levon since he went away. Saw the 40th anniversary of Last Waltz (really the end of the era) a couple of weeks ago. I remember the Band had to stop during the rain at summer jam and resumed their performance with “I shall be released”.

We had a campsite a ways from the concert area. When they opened up the stage area the day before the show, we brought our sleeping bags down for the night. We were pretty far back (people on stage about half-inch tall) but next to a speaker tower so the sound was good (rare at that time for big concerts ) Although the concert area was packed, people kept trying to climb over the sleeping campers to get closer. Every time I fell asleep, sombody stepped on me and said “sorry man”. Vibe was good enough so it was more funny in it’s predictably than anything else.

Also, the Dead played a sound check that was basically a set. And just as tight as New Years at Winterland (-: ”

Historic photos are living history, and it’s always interesting when someone like this reaches out. July 2024 is now almost over, and it certainly was eventful. Hope you had a good one.

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