Directed by D. A. Pennebaker • 1968 • United States

New York City, in the fall of 1966, Alan Pariser had an idea for the greatest concert in the history of rock and roll. As a counter-concert to the annual Monterey Jazz Festival, Pariser, an L.A. scene maker and sometime concert promoter, along with John Philips (leader of the Mamas and the Papas) and Lou Adler (the president of Dunhill Records), drummed up the idea of a concert unlike any other. With a banner declaring it a, "celebration of music, love and flowers," the forerunner to Woodstock was born. Like Woodstock, Monterey Pop was devised as a non-profit event, complete with a "board of goverors" that included Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Donovan, Brian Wilson and Smokey Robinson. For the first time, pop stars themselves were involved in the organization of a rock event. As a result, some of the biggest names in rock and roll were gladly on hand for the concert: the Grateful Dead, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, Booker T. and the MGs, to name a few...