The "Picnic" at Blackbushe 1978

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Saturday July 15th 1978.

Bob Dylan

Eric Clapton and Band

Joan Armatrading

Graham Parker and The Rumour

Lake

Photo © Chris Cooper

Reputedly the biggest ever audience for the Big Z ( although IOW 69 would have been close in the running stakes ) , The Picnic at Blackbushe was also one of the biggest ever events staged by promoter Harvey Goldsmith ( of Crystal Palace Garden Party fame ). This time round Goldsmith continued the ' English Coutnry garden ' theme he had adopted for Crystal palace and applied it to Blackbushe. Unfortunately the Aerodrome was not anywhere near as picturesque as the verdant surroundings of Crystal Palace, it was , like almost all aerodromes, flat and featureless, and when the 200,000 plus punters had managed to cram themselves into its confines, if you were up the back there wasn't a great deal to see really , as there were no video screens .

There were also many forged tickets and a number of people spent hours outside the arena negotiating their entry into the enclosure with the police and the promoters.

Dylan's and Clapton's sets were recorded by various plucky audience members, but the results were not that good, as the audience were fulled by various substance mixes and were noisy - always a bummer for audience tapers .

We have gathered Festival Welfare Services reports, setlists, recording information , exclusive photos and audience members accounts together to present as full a picture of the day as is possible at this remove, but we are always looking for more information on this and other outdoor events from 1960-80 , please Contact us if you can contribute more.

Photogallery

Recordings/set lists

Reviews

Festival Welfare report