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.

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

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