Trailer Drops for ‘Summer Jam At Watkins Glen: The Documentary’

A trailer has been released for “Summer Jam At Watkins Glen: The Documentary,” a new film examining the enormous 1973 concert that brought together the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers Band and The Band. The single-day show took place at Watkins Glen, New York on July 28, 1973, and drew a crowd estimated at more than 600,000 people.

The filmmakers behind the project are now seeking individual equity investors through the crowdfunding platform Wefunder to help finish the film.

• Concert date and location: July 28, 1973, at Watkins Glen, New York
• Reported attendance: more than 600,000 fans
• Director: Jordan Bogdonavage, who also directed “Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza”
• Producer: Art Horan, an Academy Award winner known for “The Usual Suspects”

Who Appears in the Summer Jam Documentary?

The film combines newly recorded conversations with archival footage from performers and organizers connected to the event. Allman Brothers Band members Jaimoe and Chuck Leavell are featured alongside The Band’s Robbie Robertson, Grateful Dead road manager Sam Cutler, and Bunky Odom, who worked with the Allman Brothers’ management team at the time.

Jim Koplik and Shelly Finkel, who originally promoted Summer Jam, also appear on screen and hold executive producer credits on the documentary. Organizers describe the project as the first full-length feature film built entirely around the Summer Jam concert.

In the trailer, Leavell recalls the moment he first saw the size of the crowd from the stage. “Just looking down at this ocean of bodies. I’d never seen anything like that in my life,” he says. “And I thought, ‘Wow, we’re going to play to these people. That’s crazy.'”

How Big Was the Crowd at Watkins Glen in 1973?

Summer Jam once held the Guinness Book of World Records title for the largest audience ever assembled at a pop festival, with a turnout that topped Woodstock’s by at least 100,000 people. Author Robert Santelli, in his book “Aquarius Rising: The Rock Festival Years,” calculated that roughly one in every 350 people living in the United States at the time attended the show at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway.

Santelli further noted that since the bulk of concertgoers came from the Northeast and were mostly between seventeen and twenty-four years old, nearly one in three young people living between Boston and New York was present at the festival.

How to Support the Summer Jam Documentary

According to the film’s Wefunder listing, production work is already well underway and nearing its finish. The team is asking supporters to become equity investors in exchange for a stake in future equity and revenue from the project.

More Info

• Documentary On Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers, The Band’s Historic 1973 ‘Summer Jam’ Shares First Preview | liveforlivemusic.com
• Watch A Trailer For Anticipated Summer Jam At Watkins Glen Documentary | JamBase