page_title: Crystal Palace Bowl
section_title: Garden Party Festivals
hierarchical_section_title: Crystal Palace Bowl / Garden Party Festivals
caption_attribution_description: English: Crystal Palace Garden Party 1971 - Pink Floyd Poster
context_page_description: Crystal Palace Bowl is an iconic South London venue, with 60 years of live music heritage and a legacy as an outdoor performance venue stretching back over a century. It has a unique sculptural permanent stage designed by Ian Ritchie Architects, which won multiple awards and was nominated for the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize in 1998.
  It is positioned in a natural amphitheatre capable of holding up to 15,000 people, with the stage facing an ornamental lake - part of the original Joseph Paxton vision for the landscaped grounds of the Crystal Palace, this area being known as the 'English Garden Landscape'.
  It is located within the historic and Grade II* listed Crystal Palace Park in the London Borough of Bromley
  From 1961 it hosted regular classical music performances by the likes of the London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1971 to the early 1990s the Bowl saw some of the most popular musical acts in the world across rock, pop, punk, blues, jazz, roots and reggae play the ‘Garden Party’ festivals and later Greater London Council organised events.
context_section_description: After the first decade of solely classical music at Crystal Palace Bowl, the Greater London Council were persuaded by young promoters Harvey Goldsmith and Michael Alfondary, to allow large scale rock and pop events to be staged at the venue.
  Goldsmith and Alfondary partnered with father and son promoters John and Tony Smith – who managed many of the major touring acts at the time -  together launching ‘Crystal Palace Garden Party’ with an inaugural event in May 1971. Coming quickly on the heels of the new large multi-day pop festivals in mostly rural locations; like The Isle of Wight Festival (1968), Woodstock (1969) and Glastonbury Festival (1970), Crystal Palace Garden Party pioneered a different formula – the more modest sized, semi-urban one day festival.
  Initially running twice annually, the Garden Party events quickly gained a reputation for their eclectic line-ups and over excitable members of the audience venturing into the lake for a closer view of the stage. The experimental format of events and occasional madcap incidences also feature regularly in recollections. At one event in 1972, The Who drummer Keith Moon acted as compere; after arriving via helicopter and reaching the stage by hovercraft, he proceeded to take a rowing boat on the lake and, while dressed as a pirate, served tea and cake to people in the crowd closest to the waters edge.
  On other occasions, the close proximity of the television transmitter in the park caused interference with the PA system, with music inadvertently interrupted by Test Match Special radio commentary from an England V Australia cricket match.
  Over 10 years many of the defining guitarists of the era would appear at Crystal Palace, including Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, Mick Taylor and John McLaughlin.
  The Garden Party events reached a climax in the summer of 1980, when Bob Marley played to a record breaking crowd at the Bowl; his last concert in London and one of the final few performances before his death the following year. From 1981, organisation of events in London parks was taken over by the GLC and under new Labour leader of the council Ken Livingston, would take on a noticeably more political tone.
  On the day of the Royal Wedding between Prince Charles and Diana in 1981, the 'It's Only Rock 'n' Royal' event was hosted at the Bowl. Headlined by Ian Dury, the press christened this a 'Republican rock fest', while Livingstone retorted "not everyone will want to sit square-eyed in front of a television all day – It's part of our programme of public benefit under socialism”.
  In 1983 Curtis Mayfield headlined the GLC Peace Picnic ‘Blues in the Bowl’, while in 1984 ‘London Against Racism’ and a ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ Benefit concert brought world music in the form of Jimmy Cliff, Hugh Masakela, Gil Scott-Heron and Segun Adewale. In 1985 an Anti-Heroin benefit concert organised by Pete Townshend featured the odd pairing of Hawkwind followed by forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn.
  A brief cessation in events at the Bowl followed the abolition of the GLC in 1986. They resumed in 1990 at an event headlined by The Cure and a brief revival of the ‘Garden Party’ moniker. In 1991 The Pixies played their biggest ever UK show, topping a bill of popular indie bands, while Blues and American music festivals brought roots legends like Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Ry Cooder and Emmylou Harris to South London. The ageing temporary stage at the Bowl closed in 1994/95 in preparation for the construction of a new permanent stage and a shift towards smaller emerging acts and classical music.
  Elsewhere in the park, live music continued over the next few years on much larger scale. With the boom in the acid house and dance music scene, the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre hosted ‘Elevation and Reincarnation’ from 1991-1994, London’s largest indoors legal raves. Capital FM ‘Party at the Palace’ Roadshows on the park terraces gave early outings to a pre-fame Take That and East 17. Meanwhile the athletics stadium at the Sports Centre, with capa
caption: Pink Floyd, Crystal Palace Garden Party 1971