Open Air III: 1971
Open Air Celebration III was scheduled for Midway Stadium on August 22, 1971.
Performers were to be:
Jefferson Airplane
Hot Tuna
Leo Kottke
Koerner and Glover were to emcee.
But the concert was cancelled – Midway Stadium, which had hosted Open Air I and Open Air II, refused to take a chance on another one, and when the promoters tried to get it into the Met Center, the Insider reported that “the Mayor encouraged the Bloomington City Council to apply pressure to cancel” and the “Bloomington Police voted among themselves not to work.”
The two previous shows at Midway Stadium were marred by gate crashers, and someone jumped off a high pole at the second concert. The three promoters, Timothy D. Kehr, Harry Beacom, and Walter Bush, had all their money tied up in the third concert and lost “tons of money.” The Insider reported that the disaster lost Harry Beacom $70,000 and sent him into self-imposed exile.
Official poster, courtesy Bill Graske
This may be a handbill?
Newspaper ad, courtesy Jim Froehlich
Another ad, courtesy Jim Froehlich
This ad appeared on the back cover of the Insider
This photo of a gate crasher at Open Air II appeared in the Insider in the October 1971 issue of the Insider.