To satiate the Southerners who couldn't make the trip to Woodstock the summer before, Atlanta promoter Alex Cooley hosted a festival on a raceway and adjoining pecan grove in the tiny central Georgia town of Byron. For this, the second annual event, up to 500,000 people swarmed in for the Atlanta International Pop Festival.

Like Woodstock, the holiday weekend was promoted as "three days of peace, love and music", and a parade of the best in rock and blues hit the stage. The Allman Brothers headlined the Friday show with a 'Mountain Jam' clocking in at almost 28 minutes. Jimi Hendrix would play his 'Star-Spangled Banner' right at midnight on the Fourth setting off explosions above the stage and Richie Havens played 'Here Comes the Sun' as the sun rose Sunday morning."

The event provided Southerners with their last - and perhaps only - glimpse of Hendrix before his drug overdose in London two months later and gave the town of Byron something they still talk about almost 40 years later.