Following in the footsteps of Woodstock, a new music festival was taking form for the Memorial Day weekend in 1970 in the small town of Churubusco, in Clinton County, called The Churubusco Live-In. However, the town sought legal help to shut the event down. J. Byron O’Connell, an outstanding trial attorney, was bombastic at times, and his aggressive quotes [if long-haired people came to the village, “they’re just liable to get shot”] appeared in major newspapers in Boston, New York, and elsewhere. As Churubusco’s representative, he sought to derail the concert and preserve the hamlet’s quiet, rural life, while the promoters, Hal Abramson and Raymond Filiberti, fought back.
The feeling voiced most often was that all those hippies will be drug-crazed, and we don’t want them here. And who would pay for everything? Extra police, medical facilities, food—the logistics seemed impossible even if someone did pay for them. Why did it seem impossible? It was fully expected that upwards of 200,000 fans would attend the Live-In, drawing from Montreal, Boston, New York City, and the other cities of New York State.
For three days of rock music, it wasn’t just Churubusco that would be bursting at the seams. A crowd of 200,000 would more than triple the entire county population virtually overnight. Battle lines were drawn, and the ensuing struggle lasted for weeks over whether or not the concert would be held. While the promoters and local authorities went back and forth, ticket sales continued and more bands were signed.
Thrown into the mix was a remarkable ordinance concocted by J. Byron O’Connell and Clinton town officials. When the ordinance was passed, it gained widespread attention for the unusual clauses it contained and the American liberties it surrendered, all in the name of stopping the concert.
Among the dozens of events banned were auto races, baseball games, carnivals, clambakes, concerts, exhibitions of paintings, horse shows, horseless carriages, kinetoscopes, menageries, merry-go-rounds, poultry shows, and rodeos. Other clauses warned that no one “shall cry out or make loud noises in any public street, highway, or place,” and “There shall be no musical noise between 10 pm and 9 am which shall in any way interfere with the peace and tranquility of the community.” To foil concert organizers, the town had moved towards becoming a totalitarian state, at least temporarily.
The concert dominated the news media in the region, and developments were followed by youth across the nation. If this was the second coming of Woodstock, nobody wanted to miss it, even those on the West Coast.
In the end, the adult viewpoint won, and the concert was cancelled (along with subsequent Churubusco concerts).
Acts signed to appear included: Sly & the Family Stone, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Canned Heat, Three Dog Night, B.B. King, Richie Havens, Frijid Pink, Steppenwolf, Elephant's Memory, the Allman Brothers Band, Wilbert Harison, Chairmen of the Board, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Steam, Frost, James Taylor, John Sebastian, Johnny Winter & the Kinks.