Restored footage of Atlanta International Pop Festival to debut at Pullman Yards

In the summer of 1970, crowds gathered in a field near the Middle Georgia Raceway in Byron, GA to listen to the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Seger, the Allman Brothers Band, and more. 

This would become the last iteration of the Atlanta International Pop Festival, a rock and roll festival founded by the late music promoter Alex Cooley. It was a weekend full of live music, drugs, bracing heat, and hundreds of thousands of hippies and young people embracing the counter culture with open arms. And later this summer, people who weren’t there will be able to experience the festival too. 

On July 25, footage from the 1970 Atlanta International Pop Festival will play at an event called “That 70s Experience” at Pullman Yards. From 2-10 p.m., visitors will walk through an installation that takes you back in time, experiencing a world of vintage shopping, roller rinks, and amazing music. 

Director Steve Rash, who went on to direct movies like “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “The Buddy Holly Story,” shot footage of the festival with the help of his now wife, Maggie Rash, and a small crew of camera operators, assistants, and a sound guy. It was the Fourth of July weekend in south Georgia, so it was hot and more than a little miserable. Rash and the team only had two weeks to prep for the three-day festival shoot, which felt like a whirlwind. 

“It was a glorified home movie,” Rash said. “Everybody had a camera who could shoot … We had a few people like Maggie who tried to keep up organized, but it was a nightmare. But fun!”

Adam Rosenfelt, the owner of Pullman Yards, connected with the Rashes through their agent. He found the footage gripping – particularly the pure, unadulterated 1970s vibes of the crowds – but he wasn’t sure what to do with it. After taking a call with the Rashes, he had the idea to build out an entire 70s experience using the concert as the center piece. 

The installation follows in the footsteps of other exhibits at Pullman Yards, fully immersing the audience into the world of the 1970s – creating a sense of nostalgia for anyone who remembers the time period and giving younger people the chance to experience it for the first time. 

“Let’s build out an entire 70s sort of feeling for people, to either feel nostalgic or FOMO.” Rosenfelt said. 

The footage that Rash and his team shot in 1970 was always meant to be a documentary. But initially, that dream never came to fruition – which, for Rash, made the whole thing feel like even more of a disaster. The film sat undeveloped and dormant for years, but while he and Maggie were wrapping production on 1978’s “The Buddy Holly Story,” Rash said he started talking with lab technicians to see if anything could be done. Unfortunately, the film kept coming out black, and Rash kept getting the same response.

“Steve, you have to develop film or the latent image fades,” he remembers being told by a number of different lab techs. It seemed like the film was lost to time. 

Decades later, help came in the form of the late Victor J. Kemper, the legendary director of photography known for films like “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” as well as a few of Rash’s films. According to Rash, Kemper knew the inventor of Ektachrome film, which is what they used to shoot the festival footage. 

“The film came out very damaged. Unwatchable,” Rash said about the development process. “But, you know, modern technology is unbelievable. Digital imaging is just phenomenal.” 

In 2012, a rough, unfinished cut of the footage played at the Plaza Theatre. According to Rash, for the last decade-plus he has spent every moment of his spare time trying to finish the project, correcting the film frame by frame to the best of his ability. By virtue of watching the footage with such a discerning eye, he’s noticed multiple things he didn’t catch under the hot sun the first time around in 1970. 

Rash said he’s gained a new appreciation for Jimi Hendrix, whose talents he didn’t fully appreciate at the time. He also called out acts like Terry Reid, Poco, and Grand Funk Railroad, whom his admiration for has only grown over the course of the past several years. 

But the parts of the documentary he’s most compelled by aren’t the musical acts, but the crowds themselves. While filming, Rash was most interested in the music – he almost never left the stage. Watching everything back, he’s able to finally see the multitudes of smiling (often naked) concert attendees, grinning through the elements and having the time of their lives. 

“The body language is so pure, and awkward, and human. A lot of them are nude, and proud of it, but scared sh*tless at the same time,” Rash said. “They’re just such humans. There’s no perfection, but there’s a whole lot of humanity in it.” 

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