1968 Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane First Annual Newport Pop Festival Handbills
Costa Mesa, California, August 3–4, 1968
 
A remarkable pair of original, circular handbills advertising the First Annual Newport Pop Festival, held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on August 3 and 4, 1968. The star-studded lineup captures the extraordinary breadth of the Southern California music scene at the height of the psychedelic era, with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Tiny Tim, Sonny & Cher, Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf, Eric Burdon and the Animals, the Byrds, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Canned Heat, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Country Joe & the Fish, Blue Cheer, the Chambers Brothers, the Electric Flag, and many others.
 
Both recognized color variants are included, making this an especially desirable opportunity for the concert-poster and handbill collector. The OHB-B version, with green and purple printing, is graded an exceptional 9.8 Near Mint/Mint by CGC, while the OHB-A version, featuring red and pink/peach printing, is graded 7.5 Very Fine-. The strikingly different color schemes make the two handbills particularly effective when displayed together, while their circular format and dense, radial typography are characteristic of the inventive graphic design of late-1960s California concert promotion. Tiny Tim's prominent Saturday billing is an entertaining reminder of just how enormous his popularity was at the time, while the appearance of Humble Harve, the well-known Los Angeles KHJ disc jockey, further connects the festival to the Southern California music culture of the period. Offered as a pair, these two color variants provide an unusually complete representation of one of the major early California rock festivals.
 
Literature: Grushkin, Paul, The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk, Abbeville Press, New York, 1987, p. 272 (illustrated; the alternate-colored version).