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The Forgotten Festival of Rock's Golden Era
It may not carry the mythical glow of Woodstock or the Isle of Wight, but in 1969 and 1970 the quiet Sussex countryside briefly became the epicentre of Britain's rock revolution. Plumpton Racecourse, just outside Lewes, hosted the 9th and 10th National Jazz, Blues & Pop Festivals - events whose lineups read like a roll call of rock legends in their formative years.
Year One
1969: Chaos, Heat, and The Who Before Woodstock
The festival had been running since 1961, created by Marquee Productions as the National Jazz Festival, but by the late '60s jazz was giving way to the rising tide of rock.
In 1969, after plans to stage the event near Heathrow fell through, the whole show was hastily relocated to Plumpton. Posters had to be redrawn, the stage was late in being set up, and opening night was plagued by power failures. Soft Machine's set was cut short, and Pink Floyd didn't take the stage until the early hours of Saturday morning - by which point much of the audience was already asleep under the hot, airless skies.
But when the power held, the music was unforgettable.
Pink Floyd launched with "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and closed with an extended "Interstellar Overdrive." The Bonzo Dog Band brought Saturday afternoon absurdity, while festival regular Roy Harper offered his eccentric acoustic musings.
As the sun went down, the heavy hitters rolled in: King Crimson, Yes, Aynsley Dunbar, Chicken Shack, and the Groundhogs. The Who capped the night with the same Tommy-driven set they would perform at Woodstock just a week later - but here it was more intimate, raw, and close to home.
Sunday turned more pastoral, with Magna Carta's folk harmonies and Pentangle's elegant fusion of jazz and folk. Long John Baldry kept blues lovers happy, while the London cast of Hair - featuring Marsha Hunt and Paul Nicholas - lit up the evening. Rock dominated again with Blodwyn Pig, Keef Hartley (who would also appear at Woodstock), and The Nice, who previewed their upcoming album with a twelve-minute reimagining of Dylan's "She Belongs to Me."
For £2.50, the entire weekend delivered performances that would soon become legendary. The Who and Pink Floyd were each paid £600, while bands like Yes and King Crimson pocketed just £25. Few knew then what those names would come to mean.
Year Two
1970: Fire, Breakthroughs, and the Last Plumpton Hurrah
The following year's festival would be the last at Plumpton - but what a farewell it was. By August 1970, Britain's hard rock wave was cresting, and the line-up was a snapshot of the future.
Black Sabbath arrived just weeks before their single "Paranoid" cracked the charts, performing both that and "Iron Man" for an unsuspecting crowd. Wishbone Ash were preparing their debut album. Yes, now armed with Time and a Word, brought "I've Seen All Good People."
And Deep Purple, fresh from releasing In Rock, not only played with thunderous power but also set their stage monitors on fire - literally - to mark their presence. Days later, "Black Night" would storm the singles charts.
The bill ran deep: Family, Juicy Lucy, East of Eden, Van Der Graaf Generator, Rory Gallagher's Taste, and The Groundhogs all brought muscle and grit. Cat Stevens, fresh into his new role as a soulful singer-songwriter, charmed with "Father and Son" and "Lady D'Arbanville." Peter Green appeared too, weeks after his dramatic exit from Fleetwood Mac, still radiating the genius of his blues playing.
The Sunday lineup offered a sprinkling of the unexpected. From the U.S. came Turley Richards, a blind singer-songwriter best known for his Dylan covers, adding a rare international touch to what was otherwise a very British affair. Meanwhile, bands like Magna Carta, the Strawbs, Caravan, and the Incredible String Band added folk textures to balance the volume.
Some fans saved themselves for the massive Isle of Wight Festival later that month, but for those who chose Sussex, Plumpton delivered something more personal: the chance to see giants on the brink of greatness, up close and before history had fully claimed them.
2026 · The Second Verse
How the first Revival landed
In the summer of 2026, 56 years after Plumpton last echoed to a festival like it, the Revival opened its gates for the very first time - two days of music, comedy, cinema, circus and spectacle woven into the Sussex countryside, under a sky that played along.
The music was the heart of it. Across the stages, tribute royalty met real blues fire - Think Floyd, Lewis Floyd Henry, and Kozmic Pearl’s storming Janis Joplin set among the ones people still talk about. Around them the Comedy Tent, the Festival Cinema, the Plumpton Circus, the market, the funfair and the bars all came together, with a secret silent disco carrying the die-hards on into the night. It worked - and everyone who was there will tell you so. Year one was the proof. Everything since has been about doing it bigger.
