Meeting Janis Joplin at a Soda Stand

STORY BY: Susan Beckett
YEAR: 1967
LOCATION: San Francisco, CA

Susan spent the late 60s in California, at the centre of the counter-culture movement in the USA. She remembers attending the San Rafael Folk Festival, a tiny event near San Francisco Bay. While getting a soft drink at a stand, she ran into a “gypsy woman”, and struck up a conversation. It turns out that she was one of the new performers they were introducing at the festival - Janis Joplin. Susan never made it to Woodstock, however, but did attend Altamont, the “West Coast Woodstock”. That December 1969 festival notoriously had Hell’s Angels for security, and things turned quite violent (3 people died). “It was a pretty interesting time!” Thanks for sharing, Susan.