August Jam

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August Jam


Location(s)	Charlotte, NC, United States
Years active	1974
Founded by
Date(s)	August 10, 1974
Genre(s)	Rock, including Blues-Rock, Progressive Rock, Country Rock, and Southern Rock styles.
Website

August Jam was a huge outdoor concert held Saturday August 10, 1974 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway outside Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States.

The concert featured the Allman Brothers Band, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Foghat, Black Oak Arkansas, the Marshall Tucker Band, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Grinderswitch, PFM and others. The Eagles were booked to play but cancelled.

It was apparently the largest concert ever held in the state of North Carolina, with an estimated attendance in excess of 200,000.^[1]

There were a limited amount of tickets sold prior to the concert, and when many thousands of additional fans showed up on the day of the performances, those thousands proceeded to crash the fences and rush to the infield. Many of the facilities were overwhelmed due to the crowds, and the weather did not cooperate either, producing a sporadic rain that drenched the concertgoers, and turned the infield into a muddy quagmire. However, the music went on as scheduled, the fans helped each other stay moderately comfortable, and to many it turned out to be an unforgettable experience.

The November 1974 issue of Circus magazine had this to say about Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's performance:

"ELP - ON TOUR WITH THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS

"Emerson, Lake and Palmer performed an operation on the U.S. this summer! It was heavy Brain Salad Surgery and America responded to the treatment by flocking to gigantic concert arenas from coast to coast to undergo the knives of Emerson, the pulsating percussion of Palmer, and Lake's soothing lyrics. With a road crew of 26, plus the band and friends, synthesizers, Moogs and Persian carpets, the traveling satrapy visited 16 cities and played over 10 outdoor venues. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the feedback fiends caused double-trouble with the hot boogie chefs, The Allman Brothers, in what was billed as an August Jam. The fans were so blitzed by the groups' powerhouse sets they sat dazed in their automobiles after the show and jammed Charlotte traffic for hours.

The cybernetic soul band, heavier than a 747 full of tanked tourists, hopped from one gig to another with 36 tons of equipment, a true quad P.A. system, dozens of lights and an incredible array of oscillators, gongs, alternating current servos, and hydraulic lifts, plus several pairs of tailored silk coveralls for the madman of the keyboards.

ELP celebrated their fourth anniversary as a group in August by releasing their live LP, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake and Palmer,' an amazing vinyl capsule of the unparalleled ELP concert experience."