On June 18, 1967, a soon-to-be-famous lineup that includes Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, and the Grateful Dead closed out the final day of the Monterey Pop Festival. It was the first major rock festival in the U.S. It’s remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who, and Ravi Shankar, and it was also Janis Joplin’s first large-scale public performance. The festival was planned in just 7 weeks, in part by John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas. He also wrote the song “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”, sung by Scott McKenzie, to promote the event. Hundreds of thousands of people attended the festival over its 3 days. A documentary, Monterey Pop, was later released, as was an album in 1970, Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival. The festival was a groundbreaking event, and the first to mix acts from major regional music centers in the U.S., like Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, and New York City. It pioneered the basic idea of multi-day rock festival and provided the creative template that major festivals still follow today. Learn more in the audio below.