Summer Jam at Watkins Glen Documentary Shares a New Trailer

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — A documentary about Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, the July 28, 1973 concert that brought the Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band and The Band to the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway, has a new trailer. The film is still in production, and no release date has been announced.

Promoters Shelly Finkel and Jim Koplik sold 150,000 tickets at $10 each. An estimated 600,000 people came, and on the advice of promoter Bill Graham they opened the gates.

Finkel and Koplik are executive producers on the film, which is directed by Jordan Bogdonavage. JamBase published the trailer on September 4.

Who appears in the film

The interviews from the Allman Brothers side include band members Chuck Leavell, who joined in 1972, and Jaimoe, along with guitarist Derek Trucks and road managers Bunky Odom and Willie Perkins.

From the Grateful Dead side, the film includes crew member Steve Parish and tour manager Sam Cutler. The producers describe the Cutler footage as his final interview. He died on July 11, 2023.

JamBase reports that the film also uses archival footage that has not been shown before.

How the film came together

NYS Music reported on the project in May 2025, describing it as an independent film that would cover the pressures on all three bands before the show: The Band had not played live in nearly a year, the Grateful Dead were wary of large outdoor festivals, and the Allman Brothers were mourning the loss of two founding members.

Art Horan, Bruce Taylor and Eric Smith are producers alongside Finkel and Koplik. Bogdonavage said in a statement that Summer Jam “was bigger than The Band, the Allmans and The Dead.”

The producers are also offering equity stakes in the film through a crowdfunding campaign on Wefunder, according to JamBase.

Two days at the racetrack

Fans were already on the site on July 27, and all three bands soundchecked in front of them. The Grateful Dead’s soundcheck ran to two sets.

On the day, the Dead opened with two long sets. A thunderstorm cut The Band’s set in half, and Garth Hudson played his organ improvisation “The Genetic Method” during the storm. The Allman Brothers Band played for three hours, and the day closed with a jam featuring members of all three bands.

Bill Graham’s FM Productions supplied the lights, staging and a 50,000-watt sound system. Digital delay units from the New Jersey company Eventide fed speaker towers set 200, 400 and 600 feet from the stage, delaying the signal to compensate for the speed of sound.

For many years the concert held the Guinness Book of World Records entry for the largest audience at a pop festival. The film’s site puts the crowd at an estimated one in every 350 people in the country.

Music returns to The Glen

The track, now Watkins Glen International, sits in the town of Dix just southwest of the village, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. Summer Jam was the last concert held there until 2011, when Phish staged its three-day Super Ball IX festival at the complex.

Phish returned in 2015 for Magnaball. For the concert’s 50th anniversary in July 2023, Summer Jam 50 at Wonderland Forest in LaFayette was billed to close with Dark Star Orchestra recreating the Grateful Dead’s July 28, 1973 show.

Production updates are on the film’s site.

Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, a documentary directed by Jordan Bogdonavage with Shelly Finkel and Jim Koplik as executive producers, in production with no release date announced. The concert it covers took place July 28, 1973 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway, now Watkins Glen International, outside Watkins Glen, New York.

Sources: JamBase, September 4, NYS Music, May 23, 2025, Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, film site, Wikipedia, Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, Wikipedia, Watkins Glen International, Jambands, May 9, 2023.