Before Fyre Fest, There Was "The Celebration of Life"

Many remember the scandal of the much-publicized, 2017 Fyre Festival that took place on Great Exuma Island; its spectacular failure illustrated how mismanagement can spell a multi-million-dollar disaster. Fewer recall that back in June of 1971, alongside the banks of the Atchafalaya River, 60,000 festival-goers experienced a similar fiasco.

Promotion for the “Celebration of Life” festival originally promised a lineup featuring the big name performers of the day: Chuck Berry, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, The Beach Boys, and more. What took place onsite, however—in the undeveloped fields of the unincorporated community of McCrea, located about an hour’s drive north of Baton Rouge—was something else entirely. The festival made national headlines that included reports of death by drowning and typhoid infections, and its cautionary tale is an interesting tidbit from South Louisiana’s cultural history.

Promotion for the “Celebration of Life” festival originally promised a lineup featuring the big name performers of the day: Chuck Berry, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, The Beach Boys, and more. What took place onsite, however—in the undeveloped fields of the unincorporated community of McCrea, located about an hour’s drive north of Baton Rouge—was something else entirely.

In 2013, documentary filmmakers Scott Caro and Nick Brilleaux chronicled it all as part of their graduate studies at Southeastern Louisiana University. Their film, McCrea: 1971, is perhaps the most comprehensive record of the mess.

According to Caro, Celebration of Life was an effort to recreate the success of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. “Everybody was kinda trying to do their version of Woodstock,” Caro said, “to capture that magic … large scale rock festivals were kind of a new thing.”

Celebration of Life wasn’t alone. “There were a couple of other festivals that went bad,” Caro added. “It was a bad run.” He cited similar Woodstock-esque concerts with major issues, including the violent 1969 Altamont Speedway Free Festival, for which Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club members were hired as stage security; when a frustrated, stage-climbing festival-goer pulled out a gun, Hell’s Angel Alan Passaro stabbed him to death.

Celebration of Life’s first mistake was no doubt its long duration of eight days, especially as a first-time event. “Eight days is ridiculous, that is too much,” said Caro. Another major issue was the fact that organizers started selling tickets nationwide before the location was nailed-down—resulting in two or three relocations before they landed on McCrea. When the date of the event changed, though, “the scheduled acts just went up in smoke,” according to Caro.

When time came for the actual festival to take place, the extremely muddy grounds were plagued with lack of food and clean drinking water, clashes with police, violence, and safety concerns. There were injuries, illnesses, and two drownings that occurred in the adjacent Atchafalaya. Organizers had not been adequately prepared for the conditions in an underdeveloped corner of the Deep South, nor had they managed to get adequate cooperation from local law enforcement.

Preparation and an understanding of your location are key to a successful event on this scale, Caro said, which is what differentiates the McCrea disaster from most well-run events in Louisiana today. “The fact that you’re gonna be dealing with, for instance, heat stroke victims … and bad mosquitoes. As far as South Louisiana goes, those are your biggest problems. What Jazz Fest and Essence Fest are doing right is they have the locations down,” Caro said. “That’s something they’re doing right.”

Another annual event that is by all indications “doing it right” is the Baton Rouge Blues Festival.

Baton Rouge Blues Festival & Foundation Executive Director Lauren Lambert-Tompkins adeptly summarized what McCrea organizers got wrong. “I think a clear lesson learned is to focus on basic human needs,” she said. “Festivals have to mimic a town, including all public services that a town provides its citizens.

“It's easy to focus on the music and think everything will fall into place,” she continued, “but the environment you're providing to your attendees has to be a major part of your planning. Even if the headlining talent had shown up to the Celebration of Life, the attendees still would have been miserable in the festival's subpar conditions.”

A similar recent example is last year’s Burning Man Festival, wherein attendees were trapped by flooded roads for several days at the isolated site in the Nevada desert. It’s clear that extensive pre-planning for such weather conditions is vital.

“I tend to over-prepare and consider the worst possible scenario, which makes me super fun in meetings,” Lambert-Tompkins joked, “but if it's even a little possible that you'll get stranded in a muddy desert, maybe order more supplies than you think you'll need. Festivals that are on a literal or figurative island are exponentially more difficult, because you're not benefiting off of existing infrastructure. You can't really get trapped at Blues Fest because we're in the middle of downtown Baton Rouge.”

She added it’s wise to be nimble and able to “adjust the experience based on your attendees’ tendencies.”

“Something as simple as bathroom placement may not seem like a huge problem, until you hear someone say, ‘it was great music, but I had to walk a mile to use the bathroom.’ We're constantly trying to fix those ‘buts.’”

Successful execution of such large-scale cultural events has resulted in their increased  importance as part of Louisiana tourism and culture. “Our economy in Louisiana … it is bolstered by these large events,” said Caro.

Lambert-Tompkins described why she thinks Louisiana, which has come a long way since the McCrea fiasco, now enjoys such a high reputation as a site for music festivals: “I think it stems from pride and sentimentality. Music is at the core of Louisiana's culture, and our artistic output is something to brag about. Songs are like recipes in our culture—they're passed down through generations, and no one sings it like grandma can.” 

You can find Caro and Brilleaux's documentary on the "Celebration of Life" Festival, McCrea1971 at mccrea1971.com.