Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival

The Erie Canal "Soda" Pop Festival, also known colloquially as the Bull Island Rock Festival, was a rock festival held on September 2–4, 1972, on Bull Island, a strip of land in Illinois but on the Indiana side of the Wabash River near Griffin. A crowd estimated at 200,000 to 300,000 individuals attended the concert, four times what the promoters had estimated. Food and water were in short supply, and the gathering descended into relative chaos amidst heavy rains and a lack of security, with many of the scheduled acts canceling their performances due to safety concerns. After the festival concluded, the remnants of the crowd rioted and burned the main stage.