When 300,000 People Share Six Toilets

The in-depth story of how the infamous Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival (aka "Bull Island Festival") of 1972 turned into "the worst festival of all time".
It was billed as the "Woodstock of the Midwest" - a massive three-day festival featuring the biggest names in rock and roll. 300,000 eager fans made the pilgrimage to a marshy site near Evansville, Indiana, lured by the promise of iconic acts like Black Sabbath, The Eagles, and Fleetwood Mac.
They expected a laidback celebration of music, but things went horrifically off-script at the Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival. The event would, however, become infamous, not for its music though but as one of the most disastrous music festivals ever staged...

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Footage used under fair use. Indiana State Police surveillance footage via Sean McDevitt. Thank you!

We reveal the world's darkest and greatest disasters all based on true stories.
This disaster documentary is inspired by the fantastic "Fascinating Horror".

[aputin]

Hiring "Karate Experts" for security is the most 70s shit ever

[DarknetDude]

The smells of waste, being able to barely hear the music, a bunch of tweaking people. No thanks, I’m good. I’d rather buy the damn record.

[hannahp]

This is my personal idea of hell. Lots of crowds, no privacy, and 6 damn bathrooms for 300k people. Absolutely 9th circle of hell.

[AwokenEntertainment]

they tried to recreate a Woodstock but they ended up becoming the original Fyre Fest.. 🤦‍♂

[rifqihatta]

"Young people nowadays have no decency"
*Meanwhile in the 70's*

[danchris]

The guy who sued because his cows supposedly died from marijuana inhalation is the best part of this video

[antwon]

You know the food scarcity was BAD when hippies went and killed a cow 😂

[Donkeybone]

Legend has it, someone is still waiting in line to take a crap.

[turtletrading]

I kind of understand now why some people did not like hippies very much in the 1980s.

[FinnishLapphund]

Basically, never underestimate the stupidity of humans, or visitors will use 300 wooden toilets as firewood instead of as toilets, and choose to poop out in a field. I'm not saying the organisers wasn't to blame, they definitely deserve the biggest blame, but I don't get how the presumable stench from the poop field alone didn't make people go home. And how did some visitors react to finding out that there was no more food in some food trucks? They torched them, as if that would solve their food shortage. On top of that, some people took things in their own hands, and chose to illegally slaughter a nearby cow to get food, rather than realise that maybe it was time to go home. Madness.

[Skraugher]

The epitome of "imagine the smell"

[FizzleFX]

I am impressed. Just two dead? ... despite 300.000 ppl... it could been endlessly worse.

[mattlassen]

I went to a free concert that was organized at the last minute back in November of 1991 in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. 300, 000+ people showed up in memorial of iconic Bay Area concert promoter, Bill Graham, nine days after he died tragically in a helicopter crash. The 'Indian Summer' weather could not have been better and multiple HUGE acts including the Grateful Dead, Robin Williams, and Journey performed. It was an all day event starting at 10:00 AM. Food was largely scarce save for one little neighborhood grocery store across the street that quickly sold out of EVERYTHING. However, event had PLENTY OF PORTA POTTIES and medical tents to service that enormous crowd. It was a GREAT event despite my having had no sleep the night before, and partying all day. Great memory to have in light of the tragic circumstances which inspired the concert.

[nationalfinkgamng]

hilarious how hippies say crap like "peace and love" and then descend into violence and anarchy when they don't get their way

[JamieElli]

An unplanned festival in a city might be fine. City infrastructure can take a lot of the strain. But once you're in the middle of nowhere, you have to provide *EVERYTHING.*

[DavidFerree]

I was there, age 17. This is mostly accurate and has more pictures and video than I've seen anywhere else, but there were a few differences from the description. One is the toilet situation. People on the outer edges may have walked into the woods but for the most part everyone just dug a hole where they sat, did their business, and filled it back in. They left out a few of the more bizarre things going on too, such as all of the people having sex on the ground in the middle of the crowd and people just walking around naked.

[Julia-mgng]

love how hippies are all peace and love the earth but then leave TONS and TONS of trash during these events lol

[MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD]

8:00
Only 6 toilets is their fault. They shouldn't have dismantled the plentiful toilets they were given.

[Vasilia]

*Can't say I feel sorry for the attendees. They ruined it for themselves by destroying 300 toilets, tweaking, looting, and stealing*

[konnery]

Woodstock was unforgettable. This was unforgivable. People need to stop trying to be better than Woodstock. Every event that advertises to be “bigger and better than Woodstock” always turns into chaos…