Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music 1970

Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music 1970
Event poster
Genre	Rock music, blues
Dates	27–29 June 1970
Location(s)	Shepton Mallet
Years active	1970
Founded by	Freddy Bannister

The Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music was a counterculture era music festival held at the Royal Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England on 27–29 June 1970. Bands such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin performed, and the festival was widely bootlegged. An 'alternative festival' was staged in an adjoining field where the Pink Fairies, Yes, Genesis, and Hawkwind played on the back of a flatbed truck.

The festival started at midday on the 27th (a Saturday) and finished at about 6:30 am on Monday morning. A DJ played records for early arrivers from the Friday evening and continued to do so between many of the sets until the end. The festival featured a line-up of the top American west coast and British bands of the day, including Santana, The Flock, Led Zeppelin (headlining act), Hot Tuna, Country Joe McDonald, Colosseum, Jefferson Airplane (set aborted), The Byrds (acoustic set), The Moody Blues (unable to play), Dr. John (acoustic set), Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, Canned Heat, It's a Beautiful Day, Steppenwolf, Johnny Winter, John Mayall with Peter Green, Pink Floyd, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Keef Hartley, the Maynard Ferguson Big Band. This lineup was approaching the level of the more famous Isle of Wight festival held in August of the same year. As it attracted less press coverage at the time and was a smaller affair, it has generally received less attention in the years since.