Wattstax Drew 100,000 People — This 1972 Concert Was About Much More Than Music

Bell says pricing the tickets at only a dollar apiece meant that everyone could experience the power of music to inspire, heal, and bring people together."You see 5 and 6-year-old kids. You see mothers; you see fathers. You see grandfathers, grandmothers. It was like a family reunion," Bell recalls."I mean, it was like a church service; the same kind of feeling and interactions took place there.

The concert raised over $70,000 to support causes, including the Watts Summer Festival, the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation, and the Watts Labor Community Action Committee. A double album of concert highlights sold more than half a million copies within weeks of its release. However, Bell says he wanted to take Wattstax's message further- including to white audiences.

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Wattstax drew 100,000 people — this 1972 concert was about much more than musicMore than 100,000 people turned out for Wattstax, a benefit concert to commemorate the 1965 L.A. riots and 'a soulful expression of the Black experience.' This is a short history of its legacy. I just watched this several days ago. Loved Rufus Thomas, doing that funky chicken Go watch the documentary about it. Awesome. Hopefully the funds from this concert are going to the people of WATTS to regenerate their “city”! Unfortunately such “concerts” are given in the “name” of something and the funds are never used to benefit those people.
Source: NPR - 🏆 96. / 63 Read more »