I was 15 years old at the time, my mom insisted that I have a chaperone, in order to go.
My friend Bill, same age, was also going, we had planed on going together, his older brother was about 20 years old, he was also going to the Mar Y Sol concert, he became the designated “chaperone."

Who could resist, they were offering a complete package deal of 3 days/nights of concerts and the round trip air fare was included...All For $150 - !

Even in 1972 that was One Hell Of A Deal.

I had been going to concerts in NYC for about 2 years by this time, I got to see about 5 or 6 concerts at the Fillmore East and a lot more at the Academy of Music.

Flying to Puerto Rico for Easter weekend, well that was a completely different thing. It wasn't a 45 minute bus ride away, and it was for 3 or 4 days, so, yeah, as an adult now, I can see my mother's concerns about having a chaperone.

On the flight down to Puerto Rico we were on a Boeing 747, which featured an upstairs lounge, on any other normal flight, the Upper Deck, as it was called, was for First Class Passengers Only, but this was no normal flight, the whole 747 was filled with kids and adults going to the Mar Y Sol Pop Festival. On that flight with all of us Hippies was John Lennon's former band - Elephants Memory, who my friend Bill and I met and talked to in that Upper Deck, they were nice, but they were STRANGE, VERY STRANGE - !

And that's how our May Y Sol adventure began, and it only got better, and better.

Once we got to the concert area, after taking a tram ride all over Puerto Rico, the first thing I saw was a guy I knew from Hackensack High School, he had gotten to Puerto Rico a few weeks before, to establish his "connections" Yes, this guy was a drug dealer, but a High School drug dealer, hey, everybody needs a little something every now and then, and he wanted to insure that we were all taken care of - !

After we settled in on the concert field, my friend Bill's brother, our "chaperone," went and found a small group of guys his age who he knew would be at the concert. Those guys invited us to stay with them on the beach, a short walk from the concert area. These older guys had been there for several days and had built a low structure on the beach, it was made out of bamboo - ? and palm leaves as a roof. These guys were very handy, very handy indeed - !

Most other concert goers slept in tents close to the concert area, Bill and I were living in luxury on the beach...For Free - !

Each night and every day was a crazy scene, the air was filled with some of the best Rock and Roll you could ever want to hear, and there were all kinds of drugs, if you wanted them.

We Did.

I think it was the last day of the concert, at about 7:30 AM and John McLaughlin and The Mahavishnu Orchestra started playing this Very Loud, Very Weird song opening, which acted like the Siren Calling All The Zombies to Rock. I'm telling you, everyone was still a little "Fuzzy Headed" from the night before, we all walked in silence to the concert area, like Zombies - !

It Was A Sight To See - !

The concert promoter stiffed American Airlines, American Airlines didn't get paid. There was some serious concern that none of us who bought the package deal for $150 for the concert, air fare inclusive, was going to get home, at least not without calling home and having money wired to us to get home. American Airlines was very gracious, and did the right thing, they allowed all of us Very Tired Hippies to fly home, whether they got paid by the promoter or not.

Maybe The Best weekend Of My Life - !

And at 15 Years Old - !

This, Yes This may be the GREATEST CONCERT I Ever Saw - !

An Amazing lineup of so many great, and legendary performers - !

This was a Midnight show, it was after Chuck Berry played an 8 PM show. Tickets were General Admission, so we waited on line for about 3 hours before the doors opened. My friends and I ran down the Orchestra isles to get the best seats we could. I think we were about 10 - 15 rows out on the right side, great seats. This was my 2nd time seeing Pink Floyd, I think this was the official NYC debut of Dark Side of the Moon, in it's complete track order, as on the record. They played for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. After they finished DSOTM, they then played many favorites, or maybe they opened with older songs and then went into DSOT. I can't remember, it was a Very Long Time Ago.