Star performers included the Doors, the Sons of Champlin, the Steve Miller Blues Band, Jefferson Airplane, Hugh Masekela, Country Joe and the Fish, Canned Heat and the Byrds; the latter six acts also played Monterey Pop one week later.

[23][18] The song "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" was written by Phillips and sung by Scott McKenzie, released in May 1967, to promote the event.

Newsweek magazine's reporter Michael Lydon reviewed their performance as having a "professional style and entertaining manner," especially on their latest hit single "Windy", which was rising steadily on the Billboard Hot 100.

[15] The next act was blues singer Lou Rawls fronting a big band, the song arrangements conveying a "rock 'n' soul" style.

Guitarist and songwriter Barry Melton said afterward that he put political messages in the band's music because "we feel that in this society, you have to make your stance clear.

One of Paul Butterfield's standout harmonica solos was described as an exercise in serialism, breaking a "few notes into tiny bits and experiment[ing] with their regroupings.

[15] The final set of Saturday afternoon was the Electric Flag, a band led by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, containing Buddy Miles on drums, Barry Goldberg on organ, and Nick Gravenites singing in front.

"[28] Moby Grape was followed by a "terrible" showing by South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, helped only by a spirited display by Danny "Big Black" Rey on the congas.

[15] The band ended with a new single, "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star", featuring Masekela on trumpet, reprising his participation in the studio recording.

Lydon wrote that Nyro's "melodramatic" set, "accompanied by two dancing girls who pranced absurdly", was a disaster during which "the evening hit bottom".

's played a handful of instrumental R&B tunes, wearing brilliant lime green suits, then they were joined by an identically attired Otis Redding who electrified the audience with his sexually charged singing style.

"[15] Big Brother and the Holding Company returned for a short set designed to capture on film Janis Joplin singing "Ball and Chain".

[15] Buffalo Springfield, introduced by Peter Tork of the Monkees, appeared with a competent and efficient delivery of a half dozen songs, with "Bluebird" called out as memorable.

At the end of their frenetic performance of "My Generation", the audience was stunned as guitarist Pete Townshend smashed his guitar and slammed the neck against the amps and speakers.

While a psychedelic light show was projected overhead, the band, fronted by lead guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia, played extended jams, starting with "Viola Lee Blues" for 14 minutes, and finishing with a 20-minute segue of "Alligator" into "Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)".

[15] Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones introduced the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Monterey Pop Festival on the evening of Sunday, June 18.

To take things further, aware of the Who's planned explosive finale, he asked around for a can of lighter fluid, which he placed behind one of his amplifier stacks before beginning his set.

He ended his Monterey performance with an unpredictable version of "Wild Thing", which he capped by kneeling over his guitar, pouring lighter fluid over it, setting it on fire, and then smashing it onto the stage seven times before throwing its remains into the audience.

It's great sport to watch this outrageous scene-stealer wiggle his tongue, pick with his teeth, and set his axe on fire, but the showboating does distract from the history made that night—the dawning of an instrumental technique so effortlessly fecund and febrile that rock has yet to equal it, though hundreds of metal bands have gotten rich trying.

After the concert, members of Jefferson Airplane, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the Grateful Dead jammed together backstage for four more hours, stopping for breakfast at dawn.

At the last minute, they announced that they could not play the gig due to Carl Wilson's dispute with officials over his refusal to be drafted into military service, as well as the band's commitments to finishing the long-overdue "Heroes and Villains" single for Capitol Records.

[48] In a 1974 interview, he stated that he was "ready to go", but Brian "got sort of cold feet on the situation because he didn't trust that the people there in that organization were going to do right with the money and everything, and sure enough there was a scandal about that about a year or two after.

[44] In the description of Pitchfork contributor Jesse Jarnow, "when the band pulled out of their performance, the ascendant underground effectively wrote the Beach Boys—one of the biggest American hitmakers of the decade—out of the '60s rock narrative that followed.

[58] Monterey was also the first high-profile event to mix acts from major regional music centers in the U.S. – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, Tennessee, and New York City – and it was the first time many of these bands had met each other in person.

It was a particularly important meeting place for bands from the Bay Area and L.A., who had tended to regard each other with a degree of suspicion, and until that point the two scenes had been developing separately along fairly distinct lines.

[55] The Stones' Brian Jones was seen many times strolling through the crowds, resplendent in full psychedelic regalia, and appeared on stage briefly to introduce Jimi Hendrix.

Eric Burdon and the Animals later that same year, in their hit "Monterey", quoted a line from the Byrds' song "Renaissance Fair" ("I think that maybe I'm dreamin'") and mentioned performers the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Ravi Shankar, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Hugh Masekela, Grateful Dead, and the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones ("His Majesty Prince Jones smiled as he moved among the crowd").

Pennebaker's team used recently developed portable 16mm crystal-sync motion picture cameras that stayed synchronized with double-system sound-recording systems.

Sound was captured by Wally Heider's mobile studio on a then state-of-the art eight-channel recorder, with one track used for the crystal-sync tone, to synchronize it with the film cameras.

According to a radio promotional feature that accompanied the box-set release, on modified stages, including flatbed Kaleidscope (LA) trucks, set up in the surrounding environs, there had been several spontaneous jam sessions for the overflow crowds and campers.