CLEVELAND — Cleveland History Days is an annual celebration of the city’s rich history, with events highlighting and celebrating major contributions throughout the years.

What You Need To Know

  • Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the World Series of Rock concerts

  • This concert series brought iconic musical acts like Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC and Rolling Stones to Cleveland

  • Items from this concert series are now on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives

As a part of the Cleveland History Days, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives hosted an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the World Series of Rock concerts, which took place from 1974 to 1980 and brought in some of the biggest names in music to the Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

Jules Belkin, of Belkin Productions, was responsible for bringing this concert series to life, which featured iconic music acts like AC/DC, Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd.

“We were able to bring in some of the biggest bands of that era and today if you look at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, most of those bands are in the Rock Hall,” Belkin said. “So we kinda feel we made some good choices and I think the public echoed that because there were probably at least 50,000 people a concert — for Rolling Stones, there were 83,500.”

Andy Leach, the senior director of museum and archival collections at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, said the exhibit, located at the Metropolitan Campus of Tri-C, features memorabilia, photographs and even instruments from the World Series of Rock. 

“We have Ben Orr of The Cars — we have one of his bases, The Cars played one of the World Series of Rock shows. We have Joe Walsh’s Gibson Les Paul that he used to write, play and record ‘Rocky Mountain Way’ so that is really exciting,” Leach said. “I think just seeing the original memorabilia, the t-shirts the Belkin’s have loaned us for this exhibit and also original artwork for a lot of the posters.”

Kathy Lamb saw Pink Floyd at the World Series of Rock concert in 1977 and said this exhibit feels like a trip down memory lane.

“I had never been to anything like that before, I had been to concerts at Blossom before, but never anything to this scale,” Lamb recalled. “Just all of the people there, everyone around you that loved this band, it was very exciting.”

Belkin said he’s glad to see this piece of Cleveland music history still being celebrated, five decades later.

“We never knew at the time how important it was going to be but it’s really gratifying to see people who are still interested,” Belkin said. “But if you notice they are all a little bit older.”

If you are interested in seeing the World Series of Rock exhibit you can make an appoint by emailing library@rockhall.com or attend one of the open houses during these dates and times.

  • July 11: 12-4 p.m.
  • July 12: 12-4 p.m.
  • July 25: 3-7 p.m.
  • July 26: 12-4 p.m.
  • Aug. 8: 12-4 p.m.
  • Aug. 9: 12-4 p.m.
  • Aug. 22: 3-7 p.m.
  • Aug. 23: 12-4 p.m.