Schaefer Music Festival

Schaefer Music Festival
Poster for the Shaefer Music Festival, August 3, 1974
Location(s)

United States
Years active 1967-1976
Founded by Hilly Kristal, Ron Delsener
Date(s) June–September
Genre Rock and Folk, including Blues-Rock, Folk-Rock, Jazz-Rock, Latin rock and Reggae.

The Schaefer Music Festival was a music festival held in summer between 1968 and 1976 at the Wollman Skating Rink in New York City's Central Park. Beginning life in 1966 as the Rheingold Central Park Music Festival, the series was sponsored by F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company, brewer of Schaefer Beer.

Club owner and musician Hilly Kristal co-founded the series with producer and concert promoter Ron Delsener. Over the years a veritable Who's Who of superstars of the popular music scene performed there. Inexpesive tickets, which started at $1 in 1967 and rose to only $3 by 1976, further contributed to the event's popularity. While the capacity of the Wollman Rink was usually limited to about 6,000 to 7,000 people, it is reported that Bob Marley's performance in 1975 had attracted about 15,000 people.

In 1976 Dr. Pepper assumed sponsorship of a Central Park concert series, renamed The Dr. Pepper Central Park Music Festival. Due to residential noise complaints, this series was moved to Pier 84 on the West Side in 1981. In 1983 Miller Beer took over sponsorship, continuing it as the Miller Time Concert on The Pier through 1988.

Contents

Festival lineups

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

External links