I was just a kid when my parents packed me into the car one summer night in 1972 because we were going to see a show. I had no idea what Jesus Christ Superstar was. I don’t remember the drive there, and I don’t remember leaving. What I do remember is being inside the venue, and I remember glimpses the show because we were near the front row if not in it.
I had no idea that the tent we were walking into had already hosted Broadway tours and rock legends for more than a decade. Those memories along with some rumours came back years later, when I was in high school and started thinking about that night again.
I just remember the shape of the place. Round. As a matter of fact, my first few shows were all in the round. After Jesus Christ Superstar, my parents took me to see Sha Na Na twice. Then we saw George Carlin, with Andy Kaufman opening, both at the Valley Forge Music Fair in Pennsylvania. I was also just reminded that they took me to see Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons there as well.
That venue was the Camden County Music Fair, though most people around here just called it the Cherry Hill Music Fair. It sat right at the corner of Brace Road and Borton’s Mill Road, close enough to Bancroft’s historic Cherry Hill campus, right along Cooper River and Borden’s Mill, that as a kid it genuinely felt like it came and went after I went there pretty fast and I now realize it did come and go fast. Bancroft’s where I represented the organization in Special Olympics competition, and I’m proud to say I’ve brought home two gold medals and a silver, across both the summer and winter games.
The tent itself was something else entirely, and I promise I’m not exaggerating this for the sake of a good story. It really was a massive, circus-style big top, held up by these towering steel poles and a spiderweb of cables overhead. Picture walking into what looks like it should have elephants and trapeze artists inside, except instead there’s a full theatrical production happening in the round. The stage sat dead center of the whole tent, and it rotated slowly through the entire show. I didn’t understand the reason for that as a little kid. I just knew it was mesmerizing to watch the actors and the set itself keep turning, like the whole production was alive and breathing on its own.
Here’s the honest truth about my memory of that night. I don’t remember the plot. I don’t remember specific songs. What I remember is the shape of the room, the feeling of the stage slowly turning, and my parents sitting beside me taking in something they clearly thought was worth the drive and the ticket price. That’s not nothing. That’s actually everything, looking back on it now. It was my very first live show, and whatever Jesus Christ Superstar’s rock opera intensity and Broadway ambition did to the rest of that audience, what it did for me was plant the very first seed of loving live performance. I didn’t know it yet, but that spinning stage was the start of something.
The tent ran from 1956 all the way through 1969, closed for a stretch, and then reopened briefly for the 1972 and 1973 seasons, which is exactly when I caught my show. Jesus Christ Superstar had only just debuted on Broadway in late 1971, and the touring stock production that came through Cherry Hill in 1972 was part of the rock opera’s big national moment. I got to be there for it as a little kid without any clue how significant that timing actually was.
Now here’s where the story gets fun, because for years I genuinely believed some version of the rumors everybody around here seemed to pass down. Didn’t Hendrix play that tent? Didn’t The Doors tear the place up at some point? Turns out, not exactly, and honestly, the real story is better than the rumor once you dig into it. The Doors did play locally, but their actual big South Jersey show happened down the road at the indoor Cherry Hill Arena on Kings Highway back in 1968, not under our tent at all. Hendrix never played Brace Road either. His actual connection to the area traces back to something almost stranger, he was hired as the opening act for The Monkees’ massive 1967 summer tour, of all things, and got booed by screaming pop fans who had zero patience for his guitar solos. He quit that tour after just six or seven shows out of pure frustration. The Monkees did eventually swing through Cherry Hill themselves, but Jimi was long gone from that lineup by then.
What actually did play our tent, though, is genuinely cooler than either rumor. Eric Clapton’s psychedelic power trio Cream played a legendary, blistering show right there under that canvas roof on June 16, 1968. Cream. Under our tent. That’s the real story, and once I found that out, I honestly didn’t mind that the Hendrix and Doors rumors turned out to be false. Cream is plenty good enough to hang our hat on.
Thinking back on it now, that whole stretch of Cherry Hill was absolutely buzzing during that era in a way that’s hard to picture looking at the quiet neighborhood park that sits there today. The Latin Casino, that legendary nightclub nearby, was pulling in names like Frank Sinatra and The Supremes before the site eventually became Subaru’s corporate headquarters. Between the Latin Casino, the Cherry Hill Arena, and our rotating tent, this little corner of Camden County was a legitimate entertainment destination, pulling in Broadway tours and major rock acts within a few minutes’ drive of each other. As a kid, I obviously had no concept of any of that. I just knew the tent spun, the stage was round, and my parents took me somewhere special.
The tent’s gone now. The whole site got cleared eventually and turned into a quiet neighborhood park, the kind of place where nobody walking through it today would ever guess what used to stand there. But I know. I was there. I sat inside that rotating stage as a little kid taking in my very first live show, years before I understood what Bancroft would come to mean to me, years before Special Olympics medals, years before any of it. Just a kid, a spinning stage, and parents who thought it was worth the trip. Looking back, they were absolutely right.
The Ultimate Camden County Music Fair Lineup List – Here is a look at the historical names who played under that massive Cherry Hill big top tent across its running eras:
1. Rock & Pop Icons
- Bob Dylan & Joan Baez (1963)
- Cream / Eric Clapton (1968 farewell tour stop)
- Iron Butterfly (1968)
- The Four Seasons
- The Byrds
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- The Turtles
- The Association
- The Dave Clark Five (1967)
- Herman’s Hermits
- Paul Revere & the Raiders
2. R&B, Soul, & Motown Greats
- The Temptations
- Martha Reeves & The Vandellas (1967)
- Dionne Warwick
- José Feliciano
3. Big Band & Jazz Royalty
- Duke Ellington (1965)
- Count Basie
- Benny Goodman
- Glenn Miller Orchestra
- Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
4. Hollywood, Broadway, & Vocal Legends
- Judy Garland (Famous 1967 multi-night run)
- Sammy Davis Jr.
- Robert Goulet
- Richard Chamberlain
- Shirley Jones
- Howard Keel (Starring in Kismet)
- Martha Raye
