The Knebworth Park Festivals.

Knebworth Fair

8-21-76.

The Rolling Stones, 10cc, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Todd Rundgren's Utopia , Hot Tuna , Don Harrison Band.

The Stage © Garry Bodenham

   After the mega success of the 1975 bash with Pink Floyd as headliners , veteran promoter Freddie Bannister bet big on the biggest band of the time. Originally Bannister had booked Queen to headline ,but when the Stones offered themselves as festival fodder what red blooded promoter could resist such a prize? The Rolling Stones were duely booked and Queen were sidelined ( although they also headlined the Hyde Park free concert in 76 to a massive crowd, which did much to raise them in the popularity stakes).

  Bannister assembled a workmanlike parade of artists to compliment the Stones( although he was careful NOT to pick any bands who were likely to upstage the old prancers ). As it was , Don Harrison flopped , Hot Tuna were quite well received, 10cc were not, Lynyrd Skynyrd blew many people away with their long rendition of Freebird and Todd Rundgren enhanced his popularity with a hot set , the first of four appearances at Knebworth festivals between 1976 and 1979.

   The Stones also insisted that the promoter should attempt to try to instill a carnival atmosphere at the show by hiring a large number of clowns , buskers and other circus acts , who were supposed to entertain the crowd between sets. This was only partly successful , as in every big festival, people were not keen to move from their spots once they had possessed them and therefore many of the acts were not seen by the majority of the crowd.

The stage itself was in the shape of a giant tongue ( modelled on the Stones logo which allowed Jagger to parade himself nicely ) but which also meant the audience were further away from most of the performers than ever .

(The stage itself is still in use, being used at the Rosskilde festival since 1978, although its considerably bigger as its been enlarged by a third . ) The soundboard tent was used at the wonderfull Glastonbury free festival 1977 as a stage !

The shows were projected on large video screens at the back of the site, which was nice move, although screens on either side of the stage would have been better .There is video circulating of some of the acts , the most well known being that of Lynyrd Skynyrd's performance of Freebird. The whole show WAS video taped, but god knows what happened to the footage of the lesser acts.

     These pages are intended to be a celebration of the festival, the third in a long line of one day events held at Knebworth Park by the promoter Freddy Bannister . You will find here as many details of the day as we can muster, most especially oral recollections of those who attended, details of performances , photos ,reviews ( can anyone help with providing some more of these ?) , band personnel, set lists , audience and soundboard recordings and links where available,

     We 'd also like to thank the following people for contributing to the development of the pages so far. 

Richard Arridge, Garry Bodenham , Henry Cobbold, Neil Rice ,Chris Wojecki , Martin Starnes , Leigh Revell, Roger Pickering, Terrry Mckee, Les Robson, Freddy Bannister, Dermot, Pete Piwowarski, Parcan, Enrico, Graham Edgar ,Ove Strindh and Chris Atkins.

Thankee gents ....