ABOVE: Often called "Hawaii's Woodstock," the Diamond Head Crater Festivals held between 1969 and 1977 featured acts like Journey, Styx and the Grateful Dead, along with Hawaiian artists like Cecilio & Kapono. Also called the Sunshine Festivals, these free, all-day events sometimes drew crowds of more than seventy-five thousand. Here, a band takes the main stage at the seventh annual festival in 1975.
There are a lot of great things about living on islands in the middle of the ocean, but a happening live music scene isn't really one of them. Many of the biggest acts don't bother with the cost, logistics and shortage of venues. But for half a century Hawaii has also been a favorite stop for some of the world's most popular musical groups as they crisscross the globe on international tours.
The ones that do make the detour are rarely disappointed. In the 1960s and '70s artists like Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith, KISS and other up-and-comers of that generation boosted their popularity with performances in Hawaii, where enthusiastic, music-hungry audiences filled auditoriums, arenas and dormant volcanoes.
The state's largest indoor concert arena, the Honolulu International Center (HIC), opened in 1964 and was renamed the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in 1976, after the Honolulu mayor who saw the project to completion. During the 1970s, Diamond Head Crater was also as a venue for large and now legendary outdoor musical festivals.
PF Bentley attended many of those shows as a photographer for Sunbums Hawaii, a local music and alternative newspaper. In the 1970s, Bentley was shooting in black-and-white with his first camera, a hand-cranked Minolta SRT-100. Through his 50mm lens, Bentley captured images that define a golden pre-internet era, when live concerts were the apex of musical entertainment, radio ruled the airwaves, vinyl was king and record stores were still a thing.
Kenny Loggins strikes an iconic rock pose, borrowing a page from the Pete Townsend playbook during a 1975 concert at the HIC arena.
Alvin Lee, guitarist and singer for Ten Years After, shows Honolulu how he'd love to change the world, just like he did at Woodstock.
Paul Stanley shock-rocks Honolulu on Leap Day, February 29, 1976 at the HIC arena. It was the only time KISS ever played in Hawaii.
With his magnetic stage presence, vocal virtuosity and unrivaled fashion sense, Sly Stone adds new meaning to the phrase "belt it out" at the Sunshine Festival in Diamond Head Crater.
Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler signs LPs at Ala Moana Shopping Center in 1975. The band's hit "Walk This Way" was conceived during sound check at the HIC arena in 1974, when Aerosmith opened for the Guess Who.
Slow hands were a perfect fit for Hawaii's laid back vibe when Eric Clapton performed for the local crowd at HIC in 1975.
A lei-draped Peter Frampton (right) comes alive alongside bassist Stanley Sheldon at HIC in 1976. Frampton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame forty-eight years later.
An uplifting moment on the HIC stage in September 1976 as Roberta Flack kills it softly with her song.
The Temptations step into the spotlight at HIC in 1975.
