Piano drop

[2] A piano drop occurred as part of a fundraiser for the Seattle underground newspaper Helix and non-commercial radio station KRAB, the predecessor to today's KSER, Sunday, April 28, 1968, in Duvall, Washington.

According to Walt Crowley, they had listened to a KRAB broadcast of a recording of a piano being destroyed by a sledgehammer at an earlier benefit for Seattle's Central Area Motivation Program[5] (a predominantly African-American anti-poverty group).

[9] The drop, from roughly 150 feet, proved to be more logistically difficult than expected: the pilot miscalculated his slowing down and, in order to keep the helicopter stable, had to release the cable prematurely.

[7][10] The Piano Drop led directly to the Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair on Labor Day weekend, 1968 (many of the same people were involved).

[10] Paul Dorpat mentions the partial precedent of Monterey Pop but remarks that, in contrast to that event, the Piano Drop and the Sky River festival that followed were held in spaces that had not previously been set up as concert venues.