Atlanta International Pop Festival 1970 — Middle Georgia Raceway

The Second Atlanta International Pop Festival, held over Independence Day weekend 1970 at the Middle Georgia Raceway in Byron, Georgia, was one of the largest music festivals in American history, with crowd estimates ranging from 350,000 to 500,000 attendees. The lineup included Jimi Hendrix (one of his last major US performances before his death in September), the Allman Brothers Band (who delivered a legendary hometown-adjacent set), Jethro Tull, B.B. King, Johnny Winter, Procol Harum, Ginger Baker's Air Force, and many others. The festival became a landmark of the Southern rock scene and a high-water mark of the era.

The Allman Brothers Band had formed in Macon, Georgia the previous year and were becoming a regional sensation. Their appearance at the Byron festival — on their home turf — helped transform them from a cult act to a nationally recognised force. Jimi Hendrix's performance was captured in part on film and is among the last major documents of him performing in the United States. The festival was largely peaceful despite its enormous size, in contrast to the violence at Altamont seven months earlier.

The Middle Georgia Raceway site in Byron is no longer an active venue in its original form. A historical marker in the Byron area acknowledges the festival's significance. The town of Byron is located off Interstate 75, south of Macon, and the site has largely returned to its rural character.