Henderson history: Bull Island promoter tried for a 1973 encore in Tri-County area

The Tri-County was buzzing like a swarm of angry hornets in 1973 after rumors began flying that one of the promoters of the notorious 1972 Bull Island rock festival wanted to stage a repeat in Webster County.

Webster County Judge Harold Childress said two promoters of the Evansville firm C.C. Manifest contacted him the previous week to sound out the possibility of a “country music show” somewhere in Western Kentucky, according to The Gleaner of July 24.

Bobby Alexander, one of the promoters of the Bull Island festival, was one of them. (He was identified the next day as Bobby Alexander Smith.) He called the planned event a “country-oriented fest for the entire family.” But he also said the promoters had given up on a Webster County site.

That was just fine with the county judge. “We’re strictly against it here,” Childress said.

The lead story in The Gleaner of July 25, however, noted radio spots were being ordered in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta. Radio stations in those towns had called an Evansville station to check the credit of the promoters: Bobby Alexander Smith, Tyke Phillips and David Taylor.

“Freedom Valley Rock Festival on Labor Day Weekend in the hills of Western Kentucky,” is how the first paragraph read, providing the gist of the radio spots.

Phillips was contacted by The Gleaner but said he could not yet provide the location of the planned festival. (The 1972 Bull Island location was also kept secret until shortly before it opened.)

Meanwhile, “a large number of persons” attended a showing at Webster County High School of film footage taken at Bull Island.

That prompted between 400 and 500 people to try to attend the next meeting of Webster Fiscal Court, according to the July 26 Gleaner. “The crowd rapidly overflowed the fiscal court’s chambers, backed into the adjoining hallway and finally covered the courthouse steps.”

Webster Fiscal Court unanimously passed a resolution expressing its opposition to the rumored music festival, citing the lack of traffic infrastructure, sanitary facilities, and law enforcement. County Attorney Thomas Chandler spoke to the crowd after the meeting, noting the sheriff’s department had only three members and roads to possible sites were entirely insufficient. “We told them we did not feel they could meet the requirements of the Department of Health.”

The Gleaner’s editorial of that same day agreed with Webster Fiscal Court. “The road networks can’t handle the influx of that many people. Law enforcement is limited. The land and crops in the area would be vulnerable to abuse.”

All the ink used to describe the controversy quickly overflowed into neighboring Union and Henderson counties.

The Gleaner of Aug. 1 reported Union Fiscal Court – after viewing lurid film of Bull Island -- had unanimously passed an ordinance “which would prohibit mass gatherings without the approval of the court and without adherence to stringent health and safety guidelines.”

The ordinance was modeled on the one drafted in Webster County, which was getting ready to enact its ordinance the following day. A similar ordinance was considered by Henderson Fiscal Court after it watched the film, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 4.

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“The 20-minute film depicted the influx of people to the island, sanitary problems, sexual activity, open drug use and traffic.” Fiscal court’s meeting room was standing room only.

The action in Henderson County came, however, after the rock festival plans had been officially announced in The Gleaner of Aug. 3. Organizers said they expected as many as 500,000 people to attend.

The exact location for the “Midwest Monster Peace Jubilee and Music Festival” wasn’t yet specified, Phillips said.

However, “We have not, have never, and will not look at a site in Webster, Henderson or Union counties.” The event was being advertised in 30 cities and tickets were available for $15 each from an Evansville post office box.

“If people will just give us half the cooperation they give the Kentucky Derby or the Indy 500 there would be no problems at all,” Phillips said, noting 300 Oklahoma cowboys had been hired for security.

An impressive lineup of musical acts was touted, including the likes of Roberta Flack, Edgar Winter, Black Oak Arkansas, the Chamber Brothers, ZZ Top, and Joe Walsh fronting the band Barnstorm. Bigger names were yet to come.

The Gleaner of Aug. 7 reported the promoters were beginning to explore other places, such as a site in Eastern Tennessee. Gov. Wendell Ford was quoted in that story, because he had been in town for an upcoming industrial development project, and he flat-out said he would “do all in my power as governor to stop the festival from coming to Kentucky.”

The Gleaner of Aug. 14 carried a similar statement from Tennessee Gov. Winfield Dunn after a site in the state’s southeast corner had been proposed: “I have discussed the proposed rock festival in Polk County with the commissioners of the departments of safety and public health and come to conclusion that such an event is not in the best interest of the people of Tennessee.”

By that point the fiscal courts of the entire Tri-County had passed ordinances limiting such festivals, along with Daviess County. All those ordinances are still on the books.

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The Gleaner of Aug. 19 carried an Associated Press story that said Bobby Alexander Smith was threatening legal action if authorities tried to stymie the Polk County festival. Use of the location, about six miles north of Benton, had been donated by Dennis White, Polk County juvenile judge, he said. The state of Tennessee had denied a health permit two days earlier, however, and was threatening an injunction if advertising or work on a stage began.

“I will arrest them if they violate the law if they’ve got long hair or short hair,” said Polk County Sheriff Harold Ramsey. He said 18 people had already been arrested on drug or disorderly conduct charges.

Smith, who had long hair at the time, said 10 of those people were not associated with the festival. He added he was planning two separate 10-hour concerts, which would circumvent Tennessee’s regulations on continuous rock festivals.

For the rest of this tale, I’m indebted to Ben Benton of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, who retold the saga from a Tennessee perspective in the Dec. 7, 2019, issue. “Never heard of it?” he asked in his fourth paragraph. That’s because it never happened; it was cancelled right before the Labor Day weekend.

But it certainly would have been a sight to see if it had. The lineup by that time also included ex-Beatle Paul McCartney's new band, Wings, Rev. Billy Graham, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Many residents of Polk County heaved a sigh of relief, although some would-be attendees were probably already on their way. One unidentified Benton businessman addressed that in the Aug. 24, 1973, Chattanooga newspaper:

“They’re coming here anyway. We’re just going to have to keep them moving. The sheriff is pretty good about that. He’s done more about this drug thing and hippies than anybody else in this county. Yes sir, he’s done a real fine job. Got rid of a lot of hippies."

100 YEARS AGO

The city of Henderson was getting ready to clean its water mains for the first time since they began operating July 1, 1876, according to The Gleaner of July 29, 1923.

There were about 40 miles of mains at that point and whenever there was a heavy demand, such as firefighting, it stirred up mud in the mains, which found its way out of peoples’ faucets.

“During the work, more complete and accurate records of the underground piping and valves will be compiled. While Henderson has much better records of these things than many towns, there is still much to be accomplished along this line.”

75 YEARS AGO

Gov. Earle C. Clements, accompanied by several other highly placed state officials with responsibility for state parks, visited Audubon State Park to gauge its needs, according to The Gleaner of July 28, 1948.

The governor asked his guides through the park to make written recommendations.

“Most urgently stressed to the governor and his party was the need for swimming facilities, a trailer camp, and more cabins, and accommodations for visitors.”

25 YEARS AGO

The Henderson City Commission hired a high-powered consulting team for $179,950 to guide redevelopment of the riverfront, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 29, 1998.

The team was made up of PB Booker Associates of Lexington, assisted by Hargreaves Associates, which had offices in San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts. City officials said Hargreaves was the country’s premiere riverfront development firm.

Work began in May of 2000 and continued for years. At the first of July 2014 U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell visited Henderson to dedicate riverfront improvements he had helped fund through federal earmarks.

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com, on Twitter at @BoyettFrank and on Threads at @frankalanks.

This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Bull Island promoter tried for a 1973 encore in Tri-County area