The Sedalia Katy Depot

The Ozark Music Festival was held in July, 1974 on the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri. While the Woodstock Festival from 1969 is the most well-known rock festival, the Ozark Music Festival was one of the largest music festivals ever held, while at the same time, it was also one of the least remembered festivals. "No Hassles Guaranteed" was the motto of the festival.  Some estimates have put the crowd count at 350,000 people which would make this one of the largest rock festivals in history.

promoted the festival, and assured officials from the Missouri 

Department of Agriculture / State Fairgrounds and the Sedalia 

Chamber of Commerce that the three-day weekend event would be a blue-grass and “pop rock” festival with no more 

than 50,000 tickets sold. 

Even though the festival was not scheduled to start until Friday, thousands had arrived by Thursday night and there was a steady line of cars, trucks, vans, hitchhikers and even an occasional hippie camper slowly winding towards Sedalia and the fairgrounds. While in line, festival-goers were advised that once inside the grounds, vehicles would not be allowed back outside until the festival was over. So many of them left a vehicle outside the fence for beer runs.

On Friday morning, many Sedalians woke up with sleeping hippies, bikers and groupies sprawled across their lawns, and a long line of bumper-to bumper traffic clogging the roads into town. Some residents were not able to get to work, and for many, their fears of impending chaos at the Fairgrounds were realized in the days to come. 

Midnight Special MC, Wolfman Jack hosted the event, and was on stage nightly to introduce the groups and to encourage people to stay cool and “clear the light towers of people before they fall."

The stage was a huge double sided affair, with one band performing and a second band ready to go with just the turning on and off of spotlights.

The roar of the crowd was deafening when The Eagles dedicated “Already Gone” to Nixon and his impending impeachment. Barnstorm sang “ Rocky Mountain Way” as “bases are loaded and Nixon’s at bat;" yet another politically charged moment that brought thousands to their feet cheering. The crowd also cheered wildly when the Eagles edited a line from "Peaceful, Easy Feeling" and sang, "I'd like to sleep with you in SEDALIA tonight, with a million stars all around."

By Saturday morning the festival was going full force and the town was in gridlock. The festival had grown to around 184,000 attendees, and all of the bands had to be shuttled in and out by helicopter. Many of the fans were seen walking around the fair grounds naked throughout the festival trying to keep cool and find water, because the heat was significant, leading to an outbreak of dehydration throughout the grounds. Festival-goers camped wherever there was room.

 
The "No Hassles Guaranteed" advertisement was supposedly meant to be a clear indication that the festival would be a wide open drug event and that the community would soon be invaded by tens of thousands of drug culture groupies.

Drugs were bought and sold openly, and some people reported an entire row of “drug” vendors set up with signs and sample products. People were observed carrying milk cartons filled with marijuana for sale, and many even wore hand-made signs around their necks advertising 'Hash for sale'.

The PA system in the campgrounds interspersed messages of lost people with cautionary advice to avoid overdosing. Couples were observed openly engaging in sexual activity. 

There was no "law" in Sedalia that weekend. The Hell's Angels biker club acted as the law on the fairgrounds. And it has been reported that several brothels were set up in buses on the fairgrounds under the supervision of these guardians. 

To get relief from the heat, many festival goers went to a nearby quarry and swam in the cool water. Nudity and sex was open and rampant at the quarry as it was on the fairgrounds. 

Hourly, Missouri National Guard helicopters flew over the two main stages, carrying drug overdose victims away from the festival.

By Monday, July 22, the festival crowd had left, leaving a field of garbage behind. Damage estimates of $100,000 were reported, and with the Missouri State Fair only a few weeks away the fairgrounds had to be cleaned up quickly. Damage and garbage remained, along with a lingering few waiting around for their friends who had been sent to medical facilities for treatment for dehydration.  Helicopters were used for spraying lime over the fairgrounds as a precaution against the possible outbreak of disease.

On the ground, bulldozers scraped up the topsoil, which was (reportedly) littered with discarded drug paraphernalia and gnawed cobs of corn from a neighboring field along with mountains of contaminated dirt and garbage which were hauled to the county landfills.

The Missouri Senate met in October 1974 and discussed the events of the music festival in the committee report. The report states that, "The Ozark Music Festival can only be described as a disaster. It became a haven for drug pushers who were attracted from throughout the United States. The scene made the degradation of Sodom and Gomorrah appear mild. Natural and unnatural sex acts became a spectator sport ... Frequently, nude women promoted drugs with advertisements on their bodies." But most people there had an incredible time; the people setting up the event failed to prepare properly for the large crowds and the government had to step in to help.