At the start of the Summer of Love in June, 1967, the Monterey International Pop Music Festival in California was the precursor to Woodstock, bringing together a stellar roster of musicians and an audience of 200,000, including a number of record execs who signed many of the acts.

The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield, Otis Redding, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company The Mamas and the Papas, and Ravi Shankar were on the bill.

It was the first major appearance of Janis Joplin and of Otis Redding, and the first American appearance by Jimi Hendrix. The Jimi Hendrix Experience already had a following in England, including Paul McCartney who was a board member for the festival and insisted that Hendrix appear.

In a blistering set that gives new meaning to the phrase “guitar pyrotechnics,” Hendrix played his guitar behind his head, between his legs, and with his teeth, and famously set it on fire at the end of the set. Reports of Hendrix’s powerful performance impacted sales of the US version of Are You Experienced which had just been released in the States. And a wider audience got to relive his explosive stage show when D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary Monterey Pop, the first concert film of the rock ear, was released to movie theaters the next year.