Goose Lake International Music Festival

Goose Lake International Music Festival
Promotional poster for the Goose Lake International Music Festival.
Genre	Rock music,
Dates	August 7–9, 1970
Location(s)	Leoni Township, Michigan
Years active	1970
Founded by	Richard Songer, Russ Gibb, Tom Wright
Attendance	200,000
Capacity	60,000

The Goose Lake International Music Festival held August 7–9, 1970 in Leoni Township, Michigan, "was one of the largest music events of its era", and featured many of the top rock music bands of the period.

The festival took place nearly one year after , and the Goose Lake promoters set out to create a better planned event with better facilities for rock fans than Woodstock. The lead promoter was Richard Songer, a wealthy 35-year-old man who had been successful in the construction business. Songer teamed up with experienced Detroit disc jockey and promoter, Russ Gibb, and his associate, Tom Wright, to help plan the festival.

Goose Lake Park was built on 390 acres of land, with a budget of $1 million, and was billed as the "world's first permanent festival site". It was projected that 60,000 fans would attend the first festival.

The stage was built on a large, revolving turntable with two performance spaces so that the previous band could disassemble its gear and the next band set up while the current band was performing. At the end of each performance, the stage would rotate 180 degrees, and the next act would begin performing almost immediately. The backstage area had a tent where 20 to 30 groupies described as "sizzlers" were available for the performers.

Those who attended were provided free campsites, free parking and free firewood. There were restrooms and showers every 500 feet, medical staff, motorcycle and dune buggy trails, a lake with a beach, and also the "longest slide in the world". To keep gate crashers out, the site was surrounded by a high chain-link fence topped by barbed wire.

The admission price for the three-day event was $15.00, and entry tokens in the style of poker chips were sold to avoid the counterfeiting of paper tickets.

Before the festival, concerned local officials sought a temporary restraining order to prevent the event, but a judge denied the request. Many Canadian rock fans were turned back at border crossings and were unable to attend.

National and international acts performing at the festival includedFaces featuring Rod Stewart, Jethro Tull, Chicago, Ten Years After, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Mountain, John Sebastian, the James Gang featuring Joe Walsh, The Flock and The Litter.