Byron Reactionaries

From The Great Speckled Bird July 7, 1970 pg. 4

Now it starts! the pigs are crying don’t let it happen again. The Georgia House Committee on Drug Usage is having hearings on the Byron Festival. They’ve heard from GBI agents who weep and moan about all the drug usage, and God forbid—sex and nudity. Sodom and Gomorrah. Stop it next year.

Of course, the facts are different. As Dr. Hertell, who was in charge of the medical unit points out, Byron, Georgia, was probably the safest place in Amerika on July 4th. Despite the crowd that made Byron the second largest city in the state, there was no major violence, no deaths, and only about thirty persons out of 200 to 400 thousand required hospitalization.

The toilets did overflow. Not enough were on hand and they were’nt emptied during the festival. Occasionally there were temporary shortages of water but they were only temporary.

The medical facilities were incredibly together. There were four major medical facilities staffed by 25 doctors, 30 nurses, and I 2 medical students. Each center was adjacent to an OD (drug overdose) center for bad drug trips. The OD centers were staffed by folks from Atlanta’s Community Center, Homestead Family, and Macon’s HIP program. The center people brought watkie talkies witli them, more were donated and someone from Virginia showed up with a radio-equipped truck that served as communication. Station wagons and buses were turned into ambulances to supplement those hired by the promoters. Patrols with walkie talkies were established to locate problems quickly. At times the OD center overflowed, but everyone got help.

Iin all 6000 to 7000 persons were treated in the medical and OD units. Of these about 40% were for drug problems. Of the drug cases only two or possibly three were really-serious. That during a festival in which thousands were turning on and tripping for the first time.

The togetherness of the medical centers was the result of the determination of Atlanta Community folk and doctors—not the efforts of the festival’s promoters. Before the festival the medical and OD people tried to get a firm commitment from the promoters to ensure good medical services. No go. Then the doctors estimated the cost of adequate medical care—$20,000. Steve Kaplow, the main financial backer of the festival, flipped out. Then a week before the festival another meeting was held, this time with Richard Bryan who was more together about the needs of the festival. The doctors got a commitment for medical supplies, but the doctors had to threaten the promoters with an injunction to stop the festival before they’d agree to supply a helicopter for medical use. That chopper saved at least one life.

Medical plans were made for an anticipated attendance of 80,000 By Saturday morning supplies were running out. Kaplow refused to buy more, saying that people had crashed the gates and he was no longer responsible. Under pressure he bought more from the State Health Department at cost.

It got together anyway. The doctors did have to turn to the Army for a couple of additional helicopters. Some of the ambulances were hassled by the State Police on the way to Macon. One of the overdoses was a really freaked-out 45 year old farmer who on a dare from buddies took acid while walking around the grounds. But it did work-well.

It worked despite problems with the promoters. But it worked not just because of the togetherness of the medical people. It worked because 400,000 functioned together communally, working together, helping each other. Not exactly an All-Amerikan 4th of July.

—gene guerrero.jr.

 

 

 

1 thought on “Byron Reactionaries

  1. I was there, came from Fort Benning Georgia with a friend of mine we’re both in the service I just recently returned from Vietnam two or three months before. We had bought tickets beforehand and on the 3rd of July early in the morning we boarded a bus it would take us to Byron to the concert it was a long bus trip went through a lot of backcountry but as we started getting closer to Byron the traffic suddenly backed up and the bus was stopped we noticed a lot of people walking on the side of the road we open the window and ask them what was going on they said you might as well get off the bus the traffic is stopped where’s the bus driver to let us off he said no we said you want some broken windows he open the doors for us we walked through the small little town there was a motel and as store in a post office that I remember all nice and clean and we kept walking past that there was an intersection right there don’t remember the name but we walk straight I would say a quarter of a mile and we were at the concert the first thing I see is a guy selling pot out of a soda box carton that would hold about for six packs and he was selling ounces of pot as he was sitting on the back of this police car slowly moving down the road I had to laugh we went up got our tickets and went inside it was already pretty crowded a lot of people have gotten there weeks before the concert and help set up everything and they naturally called their friends and said hey this is going to be big so I found a spot to sit down I forgot to tell you I lost my friend within the first 15 minutes of being in this crowd never saw him again ever I’ll go into why later on in this story. Roughly in front of the stage about 50 yards back and waited for the bands to start at about 6 the promoters came over the loudspeakers and said there was about a hundred thousand people outside the fence that they were going to let these people in or they people would have knocked the fence down so they had no choice again I was about 50 yards away from the big gate they had in the fence and they opened it up a wall of people 20 ft wide just started streaming into the area I finally had to sit down and got tired of seeing so many people coming in who is no problem just tiring watching them and then finally the first group game on don’t remember who they were don’t remember much the first day the second day I remember getting up hungry but there was no food or nothing around so I found some people that were nice and we’re smoking some pot so I smoke some pot played frisbee listen to music and basically had a good time later on in the day I caught a ride on the back of a car that’s how everybody got around the car would be full of people and everybody would be sitting on the fenders and we drove down the road and there was a lake on one side and a private Lake fenced off on the right side well they stopped the car we got out and went swimming in the free Lake just washing up cooling down it was amazingly hot I can’t remember when it rained but it rained at least once or twice while we were there that’s when everybody got muddy they also brought in fire truck tanker with spickets on the side of it for us to get drinking water and they passed out gallon jugs it seem like everybody through some acid in them and called it electric water so when you’d be out of water and playing frisbee and need a drink you’d ask somebody for a sip of their water and they would tell you if it was electric or straight nobody was trying to be a smartass it was a great place a lot of love and respect for everybody I don’t remember any fights or any problems I do remember there were quite a few overdoses and even some babies were born the third day which would have been the 5th of July I went back down the road and the crowd pushed the fence down at the private Lake and everybody was pretty much skinny dipping they had a camera crew taking pictures from some news station someplace and they had police standing there that were pissed off because they couldn’t bust us for anything because there were too many of us LOL I remember stripping down with a police officer right behind me taking all my clothes off and diving in the water you never said a word over in the other leg that was pretty much where everybody washed up there was a lot of soap around just ask somebody jump in the water and ask for a bar soap everybody helped everybody I think they brought in some food I can’t remember for sure I definitely done a little bit of acid LOL but no problems not my first one down that street the next day the concert ended and everybody started leaving I had acquired a sleeping bag some place and was leaving when to beautiful blonde girls asked me if I needed a ride I almost fainted I couldn’t imagine being that blessed I do believe the picture they show and one of these photo shoots or pictures they have of the concert they show Volkswagen bus coming towards you that was the same bus that those girls owned and gave me a ride to Florida in I will leave the story at this time if you want more you can email me just email me my name is Terry, oh by the way I still have my ticket stub.

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