March 27-29, 1970 Orlando Speed World, Bithlo, FL
The Winters End Pop Festival was put together to help promote the movie 'Winters End', which was about a girl who overdoses on drugs and falls from a two story window and survives.
The Festival was originally to take place in Miami however due to permitting issues the Festival was relocated to Bithlo, a small town just outside of Orlando, Florida. At the time Bithlo had no police force so there were lots of illegal activities going on and acid was plentiful.
The festival faced a maze of legal entanglements after the county commission refused to give them a permit to stage the festival. Bithlo Sheriff's deputies arrested the promoters, Mike Foreman, Bert Cohen, Stephen Mashuri, Fred Wasserman, and ranch owner James Brown, in a downtown Orlando motel room that served as the festival headquarters. They were charged with violating the country's zoning ordinance by staging the Winters End Rock Fest on Brown's Econ ranch some 15 miles east of Orlando. Shortly after the arrests the festival got underway with the group Storm, opening with a rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" dedicated to "all the judges in Florida".
Origial Miami Line-Up
Canned Heat Joe Cocker Country Joe & The Fish Grand Funk Railroad Grateful Dead BB King Richie Havens The Hog Farm Sweetwater Iron Butterfly Mountain The Kinks Little Richard John Mayall Steve Miller Band Johnny Winter Sly & The Family Stone Ten Years After Ike & Tina Turner
Actual Bithlo Line-Up
The Allman Brothers Johnny & Edgar Winter King James Version Mountain Sweetwater Buddy Guy The Hog Farm Tin House Dr. Fox Storm