'A story worth telling': Snohomish County did it before Woodstock
Local author J.D. Howard reminds readers of The Sky River Rock Festival, a forgotten music milestone.
SULTAN — In April 1968, musician and radio producer Larry Van Over dropped a piano from a helicopter — with the help of a pilot, of course — at his farm in Duvall, Washington as the band Country Joe and the Fish played to 3,000 attendees.
The event serves as the setting for the first chapter of local author J.D. Howard’s book, “Before Woodstock.” While the piano drop did take place a year before Woodstock, the book’s subtitle, “The Sky River Rock Festival & Lighter Than Air Fair,” depicts the primary setting for Howard’s historical fiction.
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The scene he described plays out in “Before Woodstock” — Van Over brainstorms with Paul Dorpat and some other friends.
Dorpat was one of the founders of an underground Seattle newspaper called “Helix.” The piano drop was conceived in the Helix office, and the newspaper co-hosted the event. It also played a big role in advertising the Sky River Rock Festival.
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