Mister D: Thanks to Linda for this!
New book of photos will take you back to the days when the likes of The Who and Janis Joplin rocked SIUE’s music festival
MRF was a summer performing-arts series that became a cultural phenomenon from 1969 to 1980. Legendary singers and musicians performed folk, jazz, classical, rock, bluegrass and country under a circus-like tent on the SIUE campus. Audiences brought blankets and lawn chairs.
“The tent gathered heat during the day and retained it at night,” said Cox, 82, of Edwardsville. “They had fans on poles, and there was air conditioning that came up through the floor of the stage to cool (performers) off. .. It was so hot at the Bette Midler concert that she took off her dress and sang in her slip. She was very young.”
